Plan to clear snow from all driveways in Mississauga gathers steam

Starting late next year, Mississauga plans to clear the troublesome, hard-packed snow and ice from the bottom of residents’ driveways across the entire city during winter after discussing the contentious matter again last week.

City councillors agreed to implement a Mississauga-wide windrow-clearing program, pending 2025 budget discussions and final approval, that would be introduced in time for winter 2025-26. Windrows are the piles of hard-packed snow (and ice) left at the end of driveways after the streets are plowed.

If the plan gets the go-ahead later this fall, Mississauga would join several other Greater Toronto Area municipalities in providing the service city-wide to all residents. Toronto, Richmond Hill and Vaughan currently offer the snow- and ice-clearing service.

For this upcoming winter, the City of Mississauga’s Driveway Windrow Snow Clearing Program again invites residents aged 65 and over and those with a physical disability to apply to get help clearing windrows.

Registration is open until Nov. 1 and the program runs from Nov. 22 until next March 24. The city provides the services for the first 750 residents who are approved.

For more information, call 311 or 905-615-4311 (outside city limits).

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The matter of windrows became a big issue during winter 2022-23 when several major storms left numbers of people in Mississauga trapped in their homes, unable to clear the heavy snow and ice themselves.

Mississauga councillors said at the time they fielded more windrow complaints from residents than ever before.

Windrows have also been a significant source of growing public frustration in recent years that hit new heights in early 2023, culminating in several isolated incidents in which angry residents attacked Mississauga snow plow drivers and their machines.

In response, city councillors at that time discussed adopting a Mississauga-wide program.

In May 2023, faced with a staff report that showed it would cost $11.6 million a year to run a city-wide clearing service, council decided against the move.

The matter came before council again last Wednesday through a notice of motion tabled by Ward 4 Coun. John Kovac calling for a city-wide windrow clearing program to be put in place in time for the 2025-26 winter season.

Councillors agreed to move forward with the plan, but only if it’s determined to be financially feasible.

Ward 1 Coun. Stephen Dasko said he strongly supports the winter program, in theory, but wants to make sure it fits in with the city’s upcoming budget.

“Last year’s budget was absolutely nasty, when combined both city and region,” so I want to make sure we’re doing this in a fiscally responsible way.

City manager Geoff Wright said his staff will update the early 2023 report with more current cost estimates for a city-wide windrow service.

Ward 11 Coun. Brad Butt said it’s time Mississauga delivered such a winter service to residents.

At a recent meeting of the Mississauga chapter of the Canadian Association of Retired Persons, Butt said he was inundated by many of the 100 or so people in attendance with questions and requests for a better windrow clearing program.

“This matters to people, (and) not just seniors,” he said. “I’ve never understood us sending a truck up a street to clear two windrows on a street because those people paid $200 to be on the program and you pass by everybody else that’s on the street … I don’t understand that at all. It makes no sense to me.”

Butt added he knows a city-wide program will be a significant financial hit, but “I just think this is a basic service that we need to get on board to start delivering.”

The councillor asked city staff to include in its updated report costs faced by the other municipalities that run city-wide windrow programs.