Poll says most people are unhappy with snow-clearing services in southern Ontario

Municipal snowplows and other winter maintenance machines have already been put to the test at least once in Mississauga and elsewhere across the Greater Toronto Area as the cold weather starts to take hold.

Winter’s first blast of late 2025 dropped nearly 10 centimetres of snow on Toronto Pearson Airport in Mississauga on Nov. 9, airport officials said.

In Mississauga, Mayor Carolyn Parrish applauded the efforts — and results — of the city’s snow-clearing crews, saying her office received few complaints in the wake of the season’s first significant snowfall.

“I don’t know how many people (councillors and city staff) got complaints, but from what I heard in my office it was very low and it was (a complaint) we were expecting, which was tearing up sod with the sidewalk (snow) clearing because the ground isn’t frozen yet,” the mayor said last week at the City of Mississauga’s general committee meeting.

“But it was really, really good; I think you did an amazing job,” Parrish told city staff.

Mississauga officials said earlier they’re ready to keep roads — and the bottom of people’s driveways — clear when winter storms hit the city this winter.

The city says its winter maintenance crews, armed with equipment to help deliver new services, are prepared when needed to clear significant accumulations of snow and ice from major and secondary roads, bike lanes, bus stops and pedestrian crossings in addition to — for the first time — all sidewalks and residential windrows.

Windrows are the difficult-to-move piles of hard-packed snow and sometimes ice left at the end of driveways after the streets are plowed (see video below). They’ve been a contentious issue in Mississauga the past few years as residents have been pushing city council to deliver a winter plan to keep their driveways accessible.

Starting this winter, city snowplow crews will for the first time ever clear the windrows in front of homes across the entire city — a total of some 134,000 driveways. Using specialized new equipment, the plows will clear a 10-foot-wide opening at the end of driveways.

City officials noted snowplows will clear windrows only for home driveways. The service is not available for condominiums, commercial properties and homes on private roads.

In Mississauga, snowplows are deployed when five centimetres or more of snow accumulates on the ground. For less accumulation, winter maintenance crews salt the roads and sidewalks.

Historically, the quality of municipal ice- and snow-clearing services — roads, both major and secondary, in addition to other areas — is something many residents have complained about in towns and cities across the GTA and southern Ontario.

Residents have their say on winter services 

As the worst of winter weather this season looms on the horizon, a clear majority of INsauga.com readers — nearly two in three — voiced displeasure with their municipalities’ snow-clearing services.

Asked in an INsauga.com poll “Are you happy with how roads and sidewalks are cleared of snow and ice in your community during winter?” most readers answered “no.”

As of Nov. 18, 879 respondents (64 per cent) said “no” while 494 (36 per cent) said “yes” in answering the informal poll question.

In total, 1,373 people took part in the poll.

(Cover photo: City of Mississauga)