Pile snow on lawns, not on the street, urges mayor of CDN-NDG
NDG resident John Michael stood beside his parked car Monday morning, looking up at the mountain of snow that blocked his car's exit.
"I'm stuck. I'm not too happy about it," he said.
He says the snow came from a neighbourhood's driveway.
"What can I do?" he asked, laughing with exasperation.
Michael isn't the only resident of Notre-Dame-de-Grâce who faced this predicament after the weekend snowstorm that slammed Quebec.
People often push snow from their driveways onto the street, where they take up precious parking spaces.
Some residents say they see few alternatives.
"I don't really know what else you can do," said Kathy Megyery.
"The people that clear the driveway would have to take away the snow, and I don't think that would be really feasible," she said.
Use lawns, mayor urges
Sue Montgomery, the mayor of Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, says people should generally dump their shovelled snow onto their lawns, not the street.
Technically, unless you pay for a permit, you are not allowed to dump snow onto the streets — but she says it's a hard rule to enforce.
"Somebody could dump their snow on the road, but unless you actually see them doing that, you can't prove that it's their snow," Montgomery said.
"It's kind of the same thing with garbage."
Montgomery says the permit fees help the city pay for snow-clearing operations.
