Salt shortage leaving some people in a slippery situation

If you can’t get your hands on road salt, or its just too cold for it to work, what else can you use? CTV’s Jeff Pickel reports.

As the snow continues to fall and ice builds up on walkways across Waterloo Region, road salt has become a hot commodity.

A road salt shortage continues in Ontario as some cities, municipalities and professional snow clearing contractors fight to get their hands on any stock that hits the shelves.

On Wednesday, as snow fell, Bowman’s Home Hardware in Cambridge was completely out of road salt and their supply of ice melter was dwindling.

But those aren’t the only options for people looking to get a grip this winter.

“I’ve got traction aid lava grip here,” Todd Bowman, owner of Bowman’s Home Hardware said.

“I also put a couple bags of kitty litter out just for those folks who might want to have some. This is a 50/50 mix of salt and sand,” he added, pointing to a few bright yellow bags.

But there is a limit to how effective salt can be.

“Ice melter is effective from about -25 to -30 degrees Celsius,” Bowman explained. “Salt actually really doesn’t work much beyond -10. So salt is effective at being relatively cheap. [It’s] not great for the environment and the ice melter is usually better because it actually won’t hurt your lawns.”

Sand can also offer traction when things get particularly slippery.

“But people find it’s a tad bit messy and they don’t really want to track it in the house that much. When there’s no alternative, you know what? It’s great stuff,” Bowman said.