Road salt hard to find in Toronto in wake of record-breaking snowstorm

Mr. Plow King Owner and Operator Diko Nahabedian talks about plowing amid the large volume of snow across the city and a dwindling road salt supply.

Torontonians heading to the store or gas station in hopes of securing road salt for their driveways and sidewalks may be faced with barren shelves and a lack of answers as to when the product will come back in stock.

• READ MORE: Toronto gets snow-clearing help from Ontario so city can focus on residential streets, sidewalks

CTV News Toronto contacted 14 stores and gas stations across the Greater Toronto Area on Wednesday to get a sense of what inventory was like for road salt, and we were only able to find three stores with any in stock.

A couple of other businesses said whatever inventory they recently received quickly sold out as soon as it hit their shelves, while one big box store said they were also sold out of shovels.

Most businesses said they were unsure of when they would receive their next shipment.

One gas station said they hadn’t seen a shipment of road salt come in for three to four weeks, while another store indicated there’s currently a provincewide shortage.

“We are actively working to manage inventory of rock salt and ice melt in our stores,” a spokesperson for The Home Depot Canada said in an email.

Canadian Tire told CTV News Toronto it could not contribute to this story, while other big box stores like Walmart and RONA did not respond to requests for comment.

Online, however, Canadian Tire appeared to be out of stock of 10-kilogram bags of Sifto’s Safe Step Ice Salt at most stores across the GTA, except for 93 bags at its Thornhill location, 110 bags at its branch located on The Queensway, and 205 bags at its Brampton store located on Queen Street East, as of Wednesday afternoon.

RONA advertised a supply of Windsor Safe-T-Salt Ice Melter at some of its GTA locations but was sold out at many others.

In an online statement, Draglam Salt, which touts itself as the province’s largest independent salt distributor, acknowledged the shortfall of product due to the constant winter weather events faced this year, which it said have depleted “industry stockpiles.”

“As a result, readily available bulk salt has become more challenging to source,” Draglam Salt said in an update on Jan. 30.

The salt distributor recommended using sand and salt blends in the meantime, as the blend can help with traction and cutdown on overall salt usage throughout the province.

Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow said Thursday that she has called up the province for help clearing the snow left behind from the record-breaking snowstorm so the city can prioritize clearing residential streets and intersections.

Though Ontario is rich in local salt providers the supply has been dwindling. While Goderich, Ont., is the world’s largest underground salt mine, it is owned by Compass Minerals, an American company, and the bulk of its supply has been shipped across the border despite Ontario’s reported shortage.

• READ MORE: Canadian road salt is being shipped to the U.S. while Ontario municipalities run low

The Ministry of Transportation previously told CTV National News the quantity of salt servicing the province’s highways “remains sufficient.” Compass Minerals told CTV News that it is committed to serving all of its customers in Ontario, and the other markets that it serves.

More snow is in Toronto’s forecast, however, with two to five centimetres expected to fall on the city this Friday.

Have you been able to find salt in the city? If not, how many stores or gas stations did you try going to? What did you use instead of road salt?

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