Walls of snow, ice at end of driveways continue to plague the elderly

Gary Taylor was driving westbound on MacDonald Avenue with his wife around sometime 5 p.m. Monday night when he tried to make a left turn into his driveway, but couldn’t. 

A windrow - the pile of snow and ice that accumulates at the end of driveways after roadways are plowed - prevented the 75-year-old from entering his driveway. 

“It was dark, and I was about ready to turn into my driveway - and lo and behold, there’s three feet of chunks of ice at the end of my driveway,” he said. 

Taylor said he could’ve been nailed by a pickup truck because of it. 

“I almost got hit by a pickup truck behind me. He had to swing around me. Had he hit me, there were cars coming the other way too, heading eastbound,” he said. “It’s a very busy street.”

Taylor contacted SooToday Wednesday, after reading a previous article about windrows causing issues in a west-end neighbourhood. 

According to the City of Sault Ste. Marie website, the municipality has a policy in place stating that it does not remove snow and ice from the end of driveways after plowing city roadways, although a video shared on Facebook showed city workers clearing the ends of driveways on a city street Thursday morning. 

Snow removal programs for seniors elsewhere in Ontario 

Removing windrows from driveways is not official city policy, but there are some municipalities in Ontario that do it under certain circumstances. 

In Brantford, Ont., the city offers a snow windrow removal program for those over the age of 65, or have either a disability or medical condition that prevents them from clearing snow windrows on their own. 

In Brampton, Ont., there’s a program to help senior citizens and physically challenged homeowners with snow removal costs. Eligible applicants can receive a grant of up to $200 for non-corner lot properties or up to $300 for corner lot properties with sidewalks on two sides of the property, and where both sidewalks are not cleared by the municipality.

And Snow Angels in London, Ont. is essentially a match-making service for people who need assistance shoveling or to find others in need of help with shoveling driveways.

But as the City of Sault Ste. Marie pointed out during a 2018 council meeting, southern Ontario centres like Brantford receive substantially less snow than the Sault, making those types of programs more feasible financially. 

Social services earmarks dollars to help seniors with snow removal 

However, there is a local solution available for low-income seniors in need of snow removal through VON (Victorian Order of Nurses) Algoma. 

Mike Nadeau, chief executive officer for the District Sault Ste. Marie Social Services Administration Board, told SooToday Thursday that the program has been in place for a number of years, but was originally delivered by the Canadian Red Cross on behalf of the City of Sault Ste. Marie. 

It’s since been taken over by social services, which contracts the snow removal program out to VON Algoma. Nadeau advises the public to contact VON directly to find out more about the program, which has an annual budget of $50,000 that’s earmarked for snow removal. 

“VON handles all the intake, handles any scheduling or eligibility requirements - it’s our area of accountability, but we contract that out to the VON,” he said. 

Historically, anywhere from $35,000 to $50,000 is spent on the snow removal service administered by VON Algoma on average each winter. 

SooToday reached out to the City of Sault Ste. Marie’s public works department with specific questions about windrow removal Wednesday, but has yet to receive a response.

Taylor, meanwhile, told SooToday that he intends on going to the public works offices at some point to discuss all the snow and ice that keeps piling up at the end of his driveway, and the fact that he was almost involved in a collision earlier this week because of it. 

“This was a near miss, a very near miss,” Taylor said.