Montreal satisfied with cleanup after last week's snowstorm

The City of Montreal says all boroughs completed snow removal within the guidelines of the city's new centralized snow removal policy.

• How Anjou cleared its streets of snow before the rest of Montreal
• Montreal snow-clearing sees disparity between boroughs
• Montreal's new snow-removal plan to be put to the test

Harout Chitillian, the executive committee member responsible for smart city initiatives, told reporters Thursday that work was completed in five working days, totalling 10 to 11 shifts of 12 hours.

Chitillian said he was satisfied with the snow-clearing effort. 

Tale of two boroughs

The borough of Anjou was the first to finish clearing the snow. 

Chitillian says work finished earlier because there were many teams for a small territory and snow removal started 12 hours earlier than other boroughs.

Snow removal was slower in Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, where he said the borough doesn't have its own snow disposal sites and trucks have to travel further.

Chitillian said the city will look at data compiled during the cleanup in order to improve snow removal, help with billing, and make sure boroughs are following through on their commitments.

The city has a $155-million snow removal budget. The cost of cleaning up after the Dec. 29 storm is estimated at $22 million.