Snow clearing
Barrie plows 1,654 lane-kilometres of road and 660 kilometres of sidewalk to a standard council sets, on top of a floor the province sets. The 2025–26 winter dropped 390 centimetres of snow and cost more than $10 million — in a service where a normal winter runs $6–7 million and the 2025 spend was about $9 million. And the request that comes up every year — clear the windrow at the end of my driveway — has an arithmetic behind it that council has now twice declined.
What does the City promise for snow clearing?
Three tiers of road, each with a trigger depth and a cleanup clock that starts when the snow stops:
| What | Crews out at | Cleared within | Kept |
|---|---|---|---|
| Priority roads (including transit routes, by council policy) | 5 cm | 6 hours | "as bare as possible", 24/7 |
| Secondary roads | 5 cm | 8 hours | "as bare as possible", 24/7 |
| Residential roads | 8 cm | 12–24 hours | snow-packed |
| Priority sidewalks | 5 cm | not stated | snow-packed |
| Secondary sidewalks | 8 cm | not stated | snow-packed |
| Downtown sidewalks Dunlop, Collier, Mulcaster, High and the streets between | n/a | Not the City's job — the adjoining property owner must clear by 10 a.m. daily, under the Snow Clearing (Downtown) By-law | by the owner |
| Pedestrian walkways the cut-throughs between streets | n/a | Not maintained — "Pedestrian walkways are not maintained for winter operations", in the City's words. An 800 m pilot starts in the 2026–27 season (below) | not cleared |
The last two rows are the exceptions: downtown sidewalks are the adjoining property owners' duty, and the walkways between streets are not cleared by anyone. The City clears the rest: 660 km of sidewalk, 25 parking lots, 72 crosswalks, 113 bus shelters and 708 bus stops. An overnight parking ban runs December 1 to March 31 so the plows can reach the curb.
Sources: Winter Road & Sidewalk Maintenance, City of Barrie. Original document. The public service standard: the three route tiers and their trigger depths and cleanup times, the sidewalk tiers, the downtown by-law exception, the windrow policy, and the overnight parking ban. Also states an average annual snowfall of 286 cm, unattributed and higher than the Environment Canada normal. Winter Operations Plan (revision starting November 2025), City of Barrie. Original document. The operational document: 1,654 lane-km of roads and 660 km of sidewalks, the route counts, the November 15 to April 15 season, application rates, and the Minimum Maintenance Standards tables reproduced with their section citations. Local copy in with the site's research files. A 26 MB file. All retrieved August 17, 2026.
What are the provincial minimum standards?
Ontario's Minimum Maintenance Standards (O. Reg. 239/02) set what a municipality must do to keep its statutory defence against a liability claim — not what it should do. The standard is looser than Barrie's own: on the busiest class of road, 2.5 cm within 4 hours; on the quietest, 10 cm within 24. Sidewalks must be reduced to 8 cm or less within 48 hours of the snow stopping. Barrie's own budget reports 100% compliance with those provincial minimums for 2023, 2024 and 2025.
So the gap between "the province requires" and "Barrie promises" is entirely a council choice — and so is every proposal to widen or narrow it.
Sources: Winter Operations Plan (revision starting November 2025), City of Barrie. Original document. The operational document: 1,654 lane-km of roads and 660 km of sidewalks, the route counts, the November 15 to April 15 season, application rates, and the Minimum Maintenance Standards tables reproduced with their section citations. Local copy in with the site's research files. A 26 MB file. Retrieved August 17, 2026. Service Areas — Tax Rate (2026 Business Plan & Operating Budget), City of Barrie. Original document. Retrieved August 9, 2026.
What does a hard winter cost Barrie?
A normal winter runs $6–7 million; 2025 ran about $9 million; and the 2025–26 season — 390 cm of snow between late November and mid-March, snow falling on 34 of 42 days in the stretch ending in early January — the reporting cited below gives the count but not the window's exact start and end dates, so neither does this page — came in at more than $10 million, with the final bills still arriving when staff reported in May. Salt runs 17,000–20,000 tonnes in an average year; that winter brought a salt shortage and heavier sand use.
These are staff figures given to council and reported in the news. The budget book has no winter-control line: it sits inside the Operations department's $36.2 million 2026 net levy, and the 2026 base increase notes "higher costs in contracts related to sidewalk snow clearing". The capital plan does list equipment: a $239,136 front-end loader for downtown winter maintenance, approved in an earlier budget and fully spent by August 2025.
Reporting: BarrieToday, "Pass the salt: Barrie council to sift through winter receipts" (May 11, 2026) and its December 4 and 11, 2025 reports on winter costs; Barrie 360, "Can you dig it?" (January 6, 2026). Cost figures are attributed to the City's director of operations in that coverage.
How much snow does Barrie actually get?
Here the City and the federal record disagree, and the page prints both rather than picking. Barrie's winter maintenance page claims an average 286 cm a year, unattributed. Environment and Climate Change Canada's climate normals for the Barrie WPCC station put the annual snowfall normal at 223.0 cm. Whichever is used, 2025–26's 390 cm was far above it.
Source: Canadian Climate Normals 1981–2010, station BARRIE WPCC (Climate ID 6110557), Environment and Climate Change Canada. Original document. Annual snowfall normal 223.0 cm (code C, twenty or more years of record) — the figure the City's own page does not use. Retrieved August 17, 2026.
What has winter control actually cost, year by year?
Actual winter-control spending was $5.7 million in 2010 and $17.2 million in 2025, the highest year in the record; calendar 2025 holds the last months of the 2024–25 winter and the first of the 2025–26 season charted above (this site's arithmetic; the filing does not say what drove the cost).
How this is counted. What the City actually spent on winter control each calendar year, audited, as it reported it to the Province in the Financial Information Return (Schedule 40): line 0621, winter control on roads, and line 0622, sidewalks and parking lots. This is the full-accrual (PSAB) basis: it includes amortization of winter equipment and a share of City corporate overhead, so it is not the same measure as the budget or the staff cost figures elsewhere on this site. A calendar year spans two winters (January to March of one, November and December of the next). The sidewalks line is almost empty in 2017 and 2018 and not filed at all from 2019 to 2023, then returns in 2024; the filing does not say where those costs were reported in the meantime, so the totals for 2017 to 2023 may not cover the same work as the years either side. The total is this site's sum of the two lines. This is Ontario Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing (Financial Information Return)’s definition.
| Period | Breakdown | Actual expenses |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | Roads | $4,539,533 |
| 2010 | Sidewalks and parking lots | $1,186,327 |
| 2010 | Total | $5,725,860 |
| 2011 | Roads | $5,534,651 |
| 2011 | Sidewalks and parking lots | $1,178,205 |
| 2011 | Total | $6,712,856 |
| 2012 | Roads | $4,527,228 |
| 2012 | Sidewalks and parking lots | $903,402 |
| 2012 | Total | $5,430,630 |
| 2013 | Roads | $5,652,472 |
| 2013 | Sidewalks and parking lots | $1,466,187 |
| 2013 | Total | $7,118,659 |
| 2014 | Roads | $6,394,351 |
| 2014 | Sidewalks and parking lots | $1,497,436 |
| 2014 | Total | $7,891,787 |
| 2015 | Roads | $5,114,310 |
| 2015 | Sidewalks and parking lots | $1,242,365 |
| 2015 | Total | $6,356,675 |
| 2016 | Roads | $6,497,171 |
| 2016 | Sidewalks and parking lots | $1,684,431 |
| 2016 | Total | $8,181,602 |
| 2017 | Roads | $8,301,265 |
| 2017 | Sidewalks and parking lots | $27,696 |
| 20171 measure changed | Total | $8,328,961 |
| 2018 | Roads | $8,379,451 |
| 2018 | Sidewalks and parking lots | $39,505 |
| 2018 | Total | $8,418,956 |
| 2019 | Roads | $8,874,431 |
| 2019 | Total | $8,874,431 |
| 2020 | Roads | $8,137,031 |
| 2020 | Total | $8,137,031 |
| 2021 | Roads | $8,468,840 |
| 2021 | Total | $8,468,840 |
| 2022 | Roads | $9,950,665 |
| 2022 | Total | $9,950,665 |
| 2023 | Roads | $10,799,234 |
| 2023 | Total | $10,799,234 |
| 2024 | Roads | $8,054,224 |
| 2024 | Sidewalks and parking lots | $3,031,704 |
| 20242 measure changed | Total | $11,085,928 |
| 2025 | Roads | $11,868,486 |
| 2025 | Sidewalks and parking lots | $5,284,551 |
| 2025 | Total | $17,153,037 |
- 1 From 2017 the sidewalks-and-parking-lots line (FIR line 0622) is almost empty ($27,696 in 2017, $39,505 in 2018) and from 2019 to 2023 nothing is filed on it; it returns in 2024 at $3,031,704. The filing does not say where sidewalk winter costs were reported from 2017 to 2023, so totals for those years may not cover the same work. Figures on either side of this point are not directly comparable.
- 2 The sidewalks-and-parking-lots line (FIR line 0622) is filed again from 2024 ($3,031,704), after near-zero or blank years from 2017 to 2023. Figures on either side of this point are not directly comparable.
Source: Financial Information Return, Schedule 40 (Consolidated Statement of Operations: Expenses), City of Barrie, 2010 to 2025, Ontario Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing (as filed by the City of Barrie), dated June 15, 2026. Original document. The Province's open-data files fir_data_2010.zip to fir_data_2025.zip, Barrie rows (MUNID 43042). Function totals are column 11, "Total Expenses After Adjustments", of each subtotal line: 0299 general government, 0499 protection (0410 fire, 0420 police), 0699 transportation, 0899 environmental, 1099 health, 1299 social and family, 1499 social housing, 1699 recreation and culture, 1899 planning and development; 9910 is the total. Police salaries are line 0420, column 1. 2025 is the City's return as last updated on June 15, 2026; earlier years can be revised by later filings. Retrieved October 8, 2026.
Would Barrie clear windrows, and what would it cost?
The snow the plow leaves across your driveway is a windrow, and the City does not clear it: "this must be done by residents." Council asked what it would cost. The answer staff gave in December 2025 was roughly $13 million a year in operating cost, $8.5 million in new equipment and $250,000 in software — about 45 contracted front-end loaders, more than 90 contracted workers and 38 City staff — and, just as important, that it would "triple the time at minimum" to plow the roads, from eight to ten hours out to twenty-four or thirty-six. Council took no action on it.
Set against the roughly $9 million the City spent on winter control in 2025, a $13 million windrow program would take the annual snow spend to around $22 million — nearly two and a half times what it is now, before the $8.5 million of equipment. That is the trade a candidate is proposing when they promise it, and it is a fair question to put to anyone who does.
Reporting: BarrieToday, December 4 and December 11, 2025; Barrie 360, December 9, 2025. The figures are from the director of operations' memo to council, as reported; the City's winter page now carries the same order of magnitude (">$12 million every year, plus $8.5 million in new equipment").
What did change this term?
The walkways. In March 2025 council adopted motion 25-G-037, directing that walkway winter-maintenance pilot locations be considered in the 2026 budget; the 2026 capital plan carries an 800-metre pilot and a sidewalk sweeper partly allocated to it. It is a small crack in the "pedestrian walkways are not maintained" rule, and the kind of incremental service change that is entirely within a council's gift.
After the record winter, council on June 10, 2026 sent winter operations back to staff for an operational review (motion 2026-A-098), covering how many times a car can be ticketed before it is towed during a storm, with a report to General Committee "before the end of August 2026"; and asked the province for a framework limiting contractors' salt-application liability, a Lake Simcoe chloride question (2026-A-096). Both carried. As of October 7, 2026 the review had not come to General Committee — its only meeting since June, on September 16, had no winter item — and no staff memo on it had been circulated to council.
Sources: Motion 25-G-037 — walkway snow clearing pilot, City of Barrie — City Council, dated March 26, 2025. Original document. Directs that walkway winter-maintenance pilot locations be considered in the 2026 budget; sponsored by the Ward 9 councillor. The 2026 capital plan carries an 800 m pilot. Retrieved August 17, 2026. City Council Minutes, June 10, 2026, City of Barrie — City Council, dated June 10, 2026. Original document. Adopts the Executive Committee's May 13 items: 2026-A-096 (asks the province for a salt-liability framework for contractors) and 2026-A-098 (an operational review of winter operations, reporting to General Committee before the end of August 2026), both carried. Retrieved October 7, 2026.
Who controls snow clearing: council or staff?
Council's: the service levels above the provincial floor, the winter budget, the fleet, the walkway pilot, the overnight parking ban, and the downtown sidewalk by-law. Not council's: the provincial minimums, the Highway Traffic Act limits on how long a plow driver can work — the City's stated reason a 24/7 residential standard would need a whole extra shift — the 400-series and provincial highways, the GO station platforms, and the weather.
Related: the infrastructure gap (winter equipment is part of the fleet the asset plan grades Fair), where your property taxes go, and transit, whose routes ride the priority tier.
What the candidates have said
Verbatim, attributed, dated. Every passage below is copied exactly from an archived copy of its source — a campaign website, a news article, or the candidate's own social media post — and links to it. Nothing is paraphrased by this site and no for-or-against label is applied: read the words, follow the link. Passages from news coverage say whether they are the candidate quoted, the reporter's reported speech, or the reporter's characterisation.
Compiled in a research batch dated September 11, 2026, reviewed by hand before publication on October 8, 2026. Passages are capped at 60 words and listed newest first. Campaign pages are undated, so only the retrieval date is shown for them, and they sort by it. A candidate with nothing located on an issue is listed as such, with the date their sources were checked; a race is shown only once every candidate in it has been checked. See methodology.
Mayor
Alex Nuttall
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Importantly, critical services including snow plowing, garbage pick-up, clean parks and streets will take centre stage to ensure that residents receive value for their tax dollars.
Source: As quoted in barrietoday.com, Nuttall hopes to 'stay the course,' see plans through, October 2, 2026 (paragraph 12). Read October 7, 2026. news
Tanya Saari
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I will make sure Barrie’s streets get snowplowed properly. I will redirect funding from corporate subsidies to operational funding in Barrie’s budget for winter control, basic road maintenance, and core municipal services that have been starved by this Mayor.
Source: tanyasaari.ca, Commitments page, Commitment Three, under 'Investing in Winter Control and Your Basic Services'. Page. The page is undated; retrieved and archived October 7, 2026. site
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I will work with staff in each department to establish and publish clear service standards for areas such as roads, snow clearing, transit, and parks, with regular reporting on how the City is performing.
Source: tanyasaari.ca, Commitments page, Commitment Three, under 'Publishing clear service standards'. Page. The page is undated; retrieved and archived October 7, 2026. site
Show 2 more passages
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Roads, winter control, transit, accessibility and parks may not always make the biggest headlines, but they have a huge impact on daily life. Residents should be able to see the level of service the city is promising and whether we are actually delivering it.
Source: As quoted in barrietoday.com, Saari promises 'line-by-line review' of Barrie's 2027 budget, September 29, 2026 (paragraph 9, second and third sentences). Read October 7, 2026. news
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You’re already paying plenty in property taxes. You should see it in the basics: smoother roads, better snow clearing, safe sidewalks, and parks that feel cared for.
Source: tanyasaari.ca, Home page, Priorities, under 'Services That Work for You'. Page. The page is undated; retrieved and archived September 10, 2026. site
No published statement on this issue located for 2 candidates. No campaign website on the City's list: Kay Sayer, Russell Tighe. Indexed news coverage checked October 7, 2026: none quoting any of them on this issue. Social media posts not yet checked.
Ward 1
No published statement on this issue located for 6 candidates. Campaign website did not answer when checked (October 7, 2026): Stefano Agostino. Campaign website read, nothing located on this issue (October 7, 2026): Shaughna Ainsworth, Brent Bowser, Hafiz Rahman, Pauline Stevenson. No campaign website on the City's list: Christian Cadera. Indexed news coverage checked October 7, 2026: none quoting any of them on this issue. Social media posts not yet checked.
Ward 2
Ajmal Noushahi
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Increase funding and service levels for snow removal. Our winters are hard enough — clear streets and sidewalks should not be a luxury.
Source: voteforajmal.ca, Platform page, under 'Better Snow Removal'. Page. The page is undated; retrieved and archived September 10, 2026. site
No published statement on this issue located for 4 candidates. Campaign website read, nothing located on this issue (October 7, 2026): Frank Casera, Shanicka Edwards, Craig Nixon. No campaign website on the City's list: Tracy Strohm. Indexed news coverage checked October 7, 2026: none quoting any of them on this issue. Social media posts not yet checked.
Ward 3
Ben Hughes
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I believe Barrie should have clear and consistent winter-maintenance standards across the city. In Ward 3 and across Barrie, roads matter, but so do sidewalks, bus stops, transit access, intersections, pedestrian routes and the connections residents rely on to move through their neighbourhoods.
Source: benhughesbarrie.ca, Winter Maintenance position page, first paragraph after the summary. Page. The page is undated; retrieved and archived October 7, 2026. site
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I want the City to examine the whole winter-maintenance system and determine where service can realistically improve.
Source: benhughesbarrie.ca, Winter Maintenance position page, under 'Reliable Winter Maintenance', second paragraph, last sentence. Page. The page is undated; retrieved and archived October 7, 2026. site
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My first response should not automatically be to ask how much more money City Hall can spend. Before adding costs, I want to know whether residents are receiving the best possible service from the equipment, staff, contractors and budget they already pay for.
Source: benhughesbarrie.ca, Winter Maintenance position page, under 'Improve the System, Not Just the Budget', first paragraph. Page. The page is undated; retrieved and archived October 7, 2026. site
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People are paying a lot to live in Barrie, and I think they have a right to expect their roads, sidewalks, snow removal and other basic services to be well maintained,
Source: As quoted in CompassNews, Candidates vie for newly redrawn Ward 3 council seat in Barrie, October 1, 2026 (paragraph 19, quoted words). Read October 7, 2026. news
Bryan Jones
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A truly great city excels at the basics. That’s why I will work to make sure snow is cleared properly, potholes are filled and the city’s basic services are delivered at the level residents expect.
Source: As quoted in CompassNews, Candidates vie for newly redrawn Ward 3 council seat in Barrie, October 1, 2026 (paragraph 12, first two quoted sentences). Read October 7, 2026. news
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My platform, based on listening to you, is: yes to better street maintenance, yes to practical solutions for homelessness and drug addiction, yes to safe, clean parks for all of us to enjoy, and yes to smart development, built responsibly and aligned with our community.
Source: As quoted in barrietoday.com, Ward 3 candidate wants to keep Barrie 'a special city', September 18, 2026 (paragraph 12). Read October 7, 2026. news
No published statement on this issue located for 2 candidates. Campaign website read, nothing located on this issue (October 7, 2026): Amy Courser, Ryan Rijo. Indexed news coverage checked October 7, 2026: none quoting any of them on this issue. Social media posts not yet checked.
Ward 4
Iradat Ahmad
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Push for windrow relief for every household on the street, not a special request line.
Source: ahmad4ward4.ca, Home page, under 'PRIORITY 02 Better snow removal', second line. Page. The page is undated; retrieved and archived September 10, 2026. site
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Hold contractors to standards that match what residents actually experience on side streets and courts.
Source: ahmad4ward4.ca, Home page, under 'PRIORITY 02 Better snow removal', third line. Page. The page is undated; retrieved and archived September 10, 2026. site
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He wants high service standards residents can hold the city to, and a windrow policy that works for people who cannot shovel the same driveway twice.
Source: As reported by barrietoday.com, Road safety, speeding among top issues in newly redrawn Ward 4, September 10, 2026 (paragraph 11, third sentence). Read September 11, 2026. news reported
Lori Galeazza
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We need to drive down our streets and see around corners in winter. Not everyone has an off-road vehicle, so let's have the city re-examine a smarter way to clear our side streets.
Source: lorigaleazza.ca, Home page, 'What She Stands For', item 03 Better Snow Removal. Page. The page is undated; retrieved and archived September 10, 2026. site
No published statement on this issue located for 3 candidates. No campaign website on the City's list: Matthew Corbett, Patrick Harriott-Stewart. Campaign website read, nothing located on this issue (October 7, 2026): Arif Khan. Indexed news coverage checked October 7, 2026: none quoting any of them on this issue. Social media posts not yet checked.
Ward 5
Robert Thomson
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“The review should include input from (city) enforcement services regarding how many times cars can be ticketed before a tow occurs during a winter event,” said Deputy Mayor Robert Thomson, the sponsor of this item for discussion.
Source: As quoted in barrietoday.com, Pass the salt: Barrie council to sift through winter receipts, May 11, 2026 (paragraph 4). Read September 10, 2026. news
No published statement on this issue located for one candidate. Campaign website read, nothing located on this issue (October 7, 2026): Duarte Da Silva. Indexed news coverage checked October 7, 2026: none quoting them on this issue. Social media posts not yet checked.
Ward 6
No published statement on this issue located for 3 candidates. No campaign website on the City's list: Nasar George Nader. Campaign website read, nothing located on this issue (October 7, 2026): Nigussie Nigussie, Christel Pena. Indexed news coverage checked October 7, 2026: none quoting any of them on this issue. Social media posts not yet checked.
Ward 7
No published statement on this issue located for 2 candidates. Campaign website read, nothing located on this issue (October 7, 2026): Gary Harvey. No campaign website on the City's list: Michael Lewis. Indexed news coverage checked October 7, 2026: none quoting any of them on this issue. Social media posts not yet checked.
Ward 8
No published statement on this issue located for 3 candidates. Campaign website read, nothing located on this issue (October 7, 2026): Samina Alim, Jim Harris, Amanda Fellows. Indexed news coverage checked October 7, 2026: none quoting any of them on this issue. Social media posts not yet checked.
Ward 9
Norm Costello
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Snow plows can be attached with a device called snow gates. These gates allow the plow to control the windrow (the pile of snow dumped on your driveway) and eliminate you having to remove heavy snow from the bottom of your driveway.
Source: normcostello.ca, Home page, Platform section, under 'Snow windrows'. Page. The page is undated; retrieved and archived September 10, 2026. site
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Examples of the depleting quality of core city services is our snow removal. The city of Barrie receives the second highest amount of snow in Ontario, next to Sudbury, yet we manage to leave our city residents, especially our aging population, helpless after each and every snowfall.
Source: As quoted in barrietoday.com, Rising taxes, declining core services among top election issues, says Costello, August 26, 2026 (paragraph 7). Read September 11, 2026. news
Show 3 more passages
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Windrow plows are available to us, the cost is minimal as the plows are already driving by.
Source: As quoted in barrietoday.com, Rising taxes, declining core services among top election issues, says Costello, August 26, 2026 (paragraph 8, third sentence). Read September 11, 2026. news
The record shows: Staff estimated city-wide windrow clearing at more than $12 million a year in operating cost plus $8.5 million in new equipment. The windrow arithmetic.
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“I would like to see a much improved snow removal program along with the installation of windrow plows added to our current snow plows,”
Source: As quoted in CompassNews, Ward 9 election race gains momentum, July 7, 2026 (paragraph 22). Read September 10, 2026. news
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Costello said that if he wins, he will push for improvements to Barrie’s snow removal program.
Source: As reported by CompassNews, Ward 9 election race gains momentum, July 7, 2026 (paragraph 21). Read September 10, 2026. news reported
Asmar Naveed
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I believe the tracker should communicate more clearly whether a street has actually been plowed, treated, or is still awaiting service.
Source: asmarforward9.com, What's Happening in Ward 9 page, entry 'Winter Maintenance & Plow Tracker Transparency' (August 26, 2026). Page. The page is undated; retrieved and archived September 10, 2026. site
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When residents can trust what the Plow Tracker tells them, it improves transparency and helps the City respond to winter maintenance more effectively.
Source: asmarforward9.com, 'What's Happening in Ward 9' page, 'Winter Maintenance & Plow Tracker' entry, 'What this means' paragraph. Page. The page is undated; retrieved and archived September 10, 2026. site
No published statement on this issue located for 2 candidates. Campaign website read, nothing located on this issue (October 7, 2026): Sergio Morales, Dave Weingarten. Indexed news coverage checked October 7, 2026: none quoting any of them on this issue. Social media posts not yet checked.
Ward 10
Bryn Hamilton
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Increased funding for additional snow removal in neighbourhoods hardest hit by winter storms
Source: brynforbarrie.ca, Home page, 'Delivering Results For Ward 10', under 'Investing in the Little Things', fifth bullet. Page. The page is undated; retrieved and archived September 10, 2026. site
No published statement on this issue located for 2 candidates. No campaign website on the City's list: William Cadeau. Campaign website read, nothing located on this issue (October 7, 2026): Georgy Kapustin. Indexed news coverage checked October 7, 2026: none quoting any of them on this issue. Social media posts not yet checked.
School board trustees
None of the 19 trustee candidates across 7 races has a located statement on this issue; trustees do not decide it. Their statements are on the education page, and each candidate's own page says what was checked.
Common questions
Does Barrie clear driveway windrows?
No — in the City's words, "this must be done by residents." Staff priced a windrow-clearing program in December 2025 at roughly $13 million a year in operating cost plus $8.5 million in new equipment, and said it would "triple the time at minimum" to plow the roads. Council took no action on it.
How fast does Barrie plow residential streets?
Crews go out on residential roads at 8 cm of snow, with clearing within 12–24 hours after the snow stops, kept snow-packed rather than bare. Priority roads have a 5 cm trigger and a 6-hour clock.
How much snow does Barrie get?
Two averages disagree: the City's winter maintenance page claims 286 cm a year, unattributed, while Environment and Climate Change Canada's climate normals for the Barrie WPCC station put the annual snowfall normal at 223.0 cm. Whichever is used, the 2025–26 season's 390 cm was far above it.