What would having windrows cleared in Pickering, Ajax, Oshawa and Whitby cost? Millions more in taxes, say municipalities

Estimates range from near $2M to about $7M for four south Durham municipalities for snow-clearing of driveways after plow goes by

Yorkregion.com
March 13, 2023
Tim Kelly

There has been a massive snowfall. You haul on your winter clothes and take that trusty shovel out to the driveway and sidewalk.

You huff and puff to clear away all the white stuff and after all that strain an hour or so later, you’re finally done. Whew! And. Then. It. Comes.

You know what the dreaded windrow. That big pile of snow, often hard-packed, sometimes with chunks of ice inside, that piles up at the end of your driveway when the snowplow comes by.

It’s a winter snowfall ritual -- and a necessary evil. We need our streets plowed to get around safely and the big plows push the snow along the side of the road, driveway or not. But do windrows have to block our way out of or into our driveways?

In some municipalities, windrows are cleared for virtually all residences.

However, it comes at a cost, and it can be a prohibitive one.

Some municipalities in York Region clear all windrows, others do not.

Richmond Hill, population 202,000, voted in 2019 to have all windrows cleared at a cost of $4.38 million paid for by a property tax increase. Vaughan, with a population of 333,000, also voted to have all windrows cleared, and its cost, according to officials there, was earmarked at $2 million in 2023. Markham, population 338,503, looked at the cost of $4.4 million in 2019 and passed on the idea.

Many of Durham’s municipalities do provide snow removal services for those over 65 or those who have a disability. Check your municipality’s website for more details.

So what would it cost to get your windrow done in your municipality after each snowfall? And what would it involve? Population numbers are from 2021 Canadian census and don’t reflect growth since that time.
AJAX (pop. 126,666)

The windrow chat went viral recently when TikTok star Joanna Johnson put up a video about a massive pile of snow left by a plow at the end of a neighbour’s driveway. Her video prompted the town to take action to remove the dump within a few hours and got people talking about whether the town should remove windrows for all residents.

Ajax did take a look at clearing all residential windrows back in 2019, and discovered it had 30,100 residential driveways it would have to clear within 10 to 12 hours of a snowfall. To have the work done on a contracted-out service, the town estimated it would cost an additional $1.8 million at that time.

Town staff admit that four years later, with inflation and rising costs, including updates to technology and equipment, the amount would be substantially higher.

BROCK (pop. 12,567)

Did not respond to an inquiry.

CLARINGTON (pop. 101,427)

Clarington said it has more than 36,800 private dwellings spread out over approximately 900 kilometres of roads in rural and urban neighbourhoods.

Council has not directed staff to consider implementing windrow clearing into the winter control plan, so there has been no study of the potential cost.

OSHAWA (pop. 175,383)

Oshawa is compiling information on a full city windrow-clearing program and early estimates are it could range from $3 million to $5 million in additional costs to taxpayers. That would depend on the amount of equipment needed to be purchased (a capital cost), how many more people would need to be hired to do the work, and any other costs.

Oshawa’s director of operations Mike Saulnier is investigating the option and said it could mean adding 12 employees on two shifts over 24 hours in addition to the added equipment needed to clear windrows.

“The most economical way is to have a tractor that needs to articulate on the right side and left side because there are one-way streets involved. Don’t know what the cost is to retrofit one, know when you look at assets, half a dozen tractors we’d have to retrofit, we’d have to buy another six others, after that, how long would it take to do all residential sectors and manpower to do it,” he said in an interview.

Saulnier said after the last storm in Oshawa, Durham police had to be called twice after two altercations took place with plow drivers. “One (citizen) actually tried to pull our driver out of the unit,” said Saulnier.

In fact, police confirmed that a charge of assault has been laid in one incident that took place on Saturday, March 4, at 9:30 p.m. It happened in the area of Greenhill Avenue and Wilson Road North, just south of Conlin Road in north Oshawa.
Scott Patton, 32 of Oshawa, is charged with one count of assault, in the incident. The charge has not been proven in court.

PICKERING (pop. 99,186)

Pickering has just done a substantial report on sidewalk and windrow clearing, both for all those aged 60-plus and for all 37,100 residences in the city.

For a windrow-clearing program and sidewalk-clearing program for the entire city, the initial cost for capital and operating would be upwards of nearly $20 million (for a new or leased building to accommodate extra equipment and for new equipment) and adding more than $7.647 million for a program for all residential homeowners, a 10.05 per cent property tax increase over 12 months. If just contracted out with no added capital costs, the operating bill would be $7.42 million annually or a tax increase of 9.73 per cent. The report went to executive council to be received for information on March 6.

SCUGOG (pop. 21,581)

The Township of Scugog hasn’t looked at a windrow-clearing program but said, because it is a large municipality that has to clear 413 kilometres of roads, it “does not have the capacity to offer that service with the existing staff levels. Property owners are responsible to clear sidewalks adjacent to their property as well as windrows at the end of their driveway.

UXBRIDGE (pop. 21,556)

The Township of Uxbridge does not clear windrows and has done no estimate as to what it would cost to do all windrows for residences. It said “there is not any reasonable scenario in which we could offer this service to residents within our financial situation.”

WHITBY (pop. 138,501)

Whitby looked at windrow clearing for all residents earlier this year, which provided a high-level estimate. Service delivery community-wide to 49,251 homes would cost of approximately $3.7 million, officials said.