The city won’t plow your windrow

The hard pile of snow that plows leave on driveways can be a nuisance, but as CTV’s Tyler Fleming reports, the city is not looking to clear them.

Ottawa residents shovelling out after repeated snowfalls say the hardest part isn’t the driveway, it’s the wall of hard and heavy slush left behind by city plows.

The heavy pile, called a windrow, is what street plows leave behind after passing by, pushing heavy snow and ice across the end of driveways. Typically, the pile is left behind just after homeowners have finished clearing their driveways.

For Terry Mackay, it’s the most frustrating part of winter.

“I like to shovel it right after it falls because that’s its lightest time,” says Mackay. “And then the plow comes around the corner, drags all the snow from the main street, and pushes it right in front of my driveway. It’s really annoying.”

Mackay says the repeated scraping and chopping can even destroy equipment.

“It’s hard and you break your shovels after a time,” he says. “I lost my blade because I’ve been scooping all the ice off.”

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Some residents, like Sharon Grant, are able to rely on family for help.

“I’ve got a husband and an 18-year-old son, and they do most of the work,” she says, adding she would consider paying for windrow clearing if it were available. “It’d be worth it for the convenience, but I don’t know if I want to pay extra taxes. It would depend how much they’re going to charge us.”

Some cities, like Mississauga, have moved in that direction. For the 2025–26 winter, it expanded its driveway windrow-clearing service from a limited, opt-in program into a citywide service for most residential driveways. The cost is about $52 per household and is now built into municipal fees, replacing a previous $200-per-season charge paid only by seniors and people with disabilities. Crews clear a three-metre opening after street plows pass.

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Ottawa, however, says a similar system here would be far too expensive and inefficient. Ottawa Coun. Tim Tierney says the city has studied the idea more than once.

“We’re far too large of a city. We prefer to have all of our plows out actually plowing streets,” he says. “When we did look at this, even a few years ago, we were talking $20 million, and that would only serve a small segment of the population because not everyone has a laneway. At this point, it’s just not cost-effective.”

City officials say the priority remains clearing its massive transportation network.

“That is our focus,” says Bryden Denyes, the city’s area roads manager. “We have to do that for the safe transportation of all users, whether you’re walking, cycling or driving. When you look at what other municipalities are doing, in the big picture it’s just not feasible here. It would slow us down and require significant staffing and cost.”

For the 2026 budget, Ottawa boosted winter operations spending by $3 million to $103.4 million, covering snow clearing for more than 12,750 lane kilometres of roads, 2,600 kilometres of sidewalks and 60 kilometres of cycling lanes. Of that, $78 million is allocated for road maintenance and $16.9 million for sidewalks.

Under city rules, homeowners remain responsible for clearing windrows and driveways, typically within 24 hours of a snowfall. Seniors and people with disabilities can apply for help through the Snow Go Assist program, which helps cover the cost of private snow clearing.

For now, residents like Mackay are left to battle the windrow on their own.

“You spend a lot of time clearing the driveway out,” he says. “Then the plow comes by and puts it all right back.”