All you should know about snow-clearing

St. Boniface

The City of Winnipeg recently held a contest asking the public to name part of a fleet of snow-clearing machines. The winners are scheduled to be announced this month but had not been announced as this column was being written. Front-running name submissions included tributes to legendary local sports stars such as “Dale Plowerchuk” and “Melt Stegall”.

The contest highlighted the work the public works department does every year to keep streets, sidewalks, pathways, and back lanes clear of snow. In the most recent city budget, funding for snow clearing was increased by $4.5 million, the most significant increase in years.

In 2023, the city added 15 new sidewalk snow-clearing machines to its fleet in order to fulfill a goal of clearing all Priority 1 and Priority 2 sidewalks within 36 hours of the start of a snow-clearing operation, which is now accomplished on a frequent basis.

The annual City of Winnipeg Residents survey stated that 74 per cent of residents were satisfied with snow-clearing in 2025, up from just 63 per cent in 2022. Although 2022 was a particularly difficult year for weather conditions, sidewalk snow-clearing has been completed much more quickly since then, owing to the addition of the new machines.

A snow-clearing operation is declared every time the city accumulates five centimetres or more of snow. Progress updates on snow clearing operations are available on the snow clearing map page of the city’s website: legacy.winnipeg.ca/publicworks/snow/default.stm

Priority 1 and 2 streets, sidewalks and paths are cleared first, then back lanes and Priority 3 sidewalks and paths. Priority 3 streets are cleared if a residential snow-clearing operation has also been declared. For the duration of winter, there is a parking ban on all streets designated as winter routes from 2 a.m. to 7 a.m. If you live on a street that is not a designated winter route, it is important to ‘Know Your Zone’ in order to know when to move your vehicle off the street when snow-clearing is taking place. You can look up that information on the city’s website or Know Your Zone mobile app. Violating the parking restrictions may result in receiving a ticket and/or your vehicle being towed.

Thank you for your co-operation in allowing city crews to do their work and make the city a safer place. While public opinion polls indicate we are doing a better job, there is still room to improve levels of service. As your representative, I will continue to work to increase the snow-clearing budget in years to come.