The Task of Clearing Snow
Clearing snow in a city the size of Mississauga, you might imagine, is a major undertaking. With every snowfall, the City salts, sands and clears the following:
To accomplish this task, the City deploys more than 800 snow clearing vehicles. Every snowfall is different, but our team is always ready to adapt and respond.
The time it takes to clear snow
The time it takes to clear a particular street depends on the amount of snowfall and whether it is a primary or secondary route. The following table shows the City’s service standards for the time it takes to salt and clear roads from the end of a snowfall.
| Type of Road | < 5 cm | 5 – 15 cm | 15 – 30 cm | > 30 cm |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Primary Routes & Sidewalks | Salted – 12 hrs | 12 hrs | 24 hrs | > 24 hrs |
| Secondary Routes & Neighbourhood Streets | Salted – 24 hrs | 24 hrs | 36 hrs | > 36 hrs |
If your street has not been cleared, first check the standard service times above. Our snow team will not record requests for missed streets until our service deadlines have passed.
How the City clears snow
Here are our snow clearing standards and procedures:
Windrow clearing of driveways
A windrow is the pile of snow a plow leaves at the end of your driveway when it goes by. That snow has been called a windrow historically because it looks like the rows farmers leave between their fields to prevent the wind blowing their soil away.
New for the 2025-2026 snow season, the City offers a windrow clearing program for all residents of detached, semi-detached and town homes on public streets.
The program is not designed to clear snow the same way that residents might when clearing driveways. It is designed as a driveway access program to ensure people, particularly those who lack the ability to clear a snow plow row, can get in or out of their driveways. More specifically, it has the following restrictions:
- 1
Windrow clearing must necessarily be done after street plowing. Windrow clearing can take up to six hours after plowing or longer with the heaviest snow falls. Residents requiring faster access should prepare accordingly.
- 2
The service is dependent on their being a location to put the snow. Some townhouse residents, residents on sharp inside curves and residents at the ends of cul-de-sacs may have limited options for the placement of snow by heavy equipment.
- 3
The service is not available for apartment buildings or commercial properties.
- 4
Lower boulevard parking, street-parked cars, waste bins or other obstacles prevent crews from accessing some driveways.
- 5
Snow crews are instructed to create a 3-metre wide clearing equivalent to one driveway lane. While crews may clear wider spaces, this will not always occur. Residents will have to clear wider openings themselves.
- 6
When there is limited space to move snow, crews may leave a greater pile of snow on a portion of the driveway while providing 3-metres of access.
The following is the City’s windrow clearing service schedule:
| Amount of Snow | < 5 cm | 5 – 15 cm | 15 – 30 cm | > 30 cm |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Time from Last Required Plowing of Street | Not Required | 4 hrs | 6 hrs | > 6 hrs |
Clearing sidewalks
The City of Mississauga has 2,400 kilometres of sidewalks. Of that, 1,700 kilometres are designated as priority sidewalks. Priority sidewalks are located on arterial, residential and industrial collector roads, transit routes; and, on roadways having school, nursing home and hospital frontage. Priority sidewalks along with bus stops and pedestrian crossings have the same timelines for completion that priority roads receive.
Clearing of secondary sidewalks is a new service for the 2025-2026 snow season.
Please ensure vehicles and other obstacles that could block City sidewalk plows are removed from their path.
For issues about the quality or timing of City sidewalk clearing or to report damage caused by a sidewalk plow, please see ‘How we can help‘ below.
Vehicle parking
Avoid parking your vehicle on the street when it snows. Parked vehicles stop the City from salting and clearing roads for emergency vehicles, public transit and residents.
Temporary parking permits may be suspended at any time during snowfall so the City can safely clear the roads. Staff will also not issue any new temporary parking permits during this time. To find out if your temporary parking permit has been suspended follow us on Twitter @MississaugaSnow or call 311.
Tracking progress
Want to see where our snowplows are and the status of your street? Check our snowplow tracker map. We track our snowplows, salt trucks and sidewalk plows. You can see where our plows are located and when we last serviced your road. The accuracy of the tracker has been improved this year.
How we can help
Mistakes can happen. Each snowplow operator clear dozens of streets, and it is easy for something to happen on one street or in front of one home. It is a difficult job with demanding hours — and sometimes little thanks. Overall, we have every confidence in our snow team, and they will work to correct any issue when appropriate. Please have some patience though, if you have read this summary thus far, you know that clearing our streets after a major snowfall is huge task that takes some time. Our snow team is working as quickly, but also as safely as they can.
If you have an issue with snow clearing on your street, contact our 311 team by phoning 311 or emailing public.info@mississauga.ca. On average, 311 can help you more hours of the day and more quickly than a Councillor’s team can. Also, when you contact 311, your request gets statistically tracked with all other calls so that recurring issues can be identified and addressed even more quickly.
You are always welcome to call the Councillor’s office, but the best time to do that is when something cannot be resolved by 311 and you think we should know. Please know, that despite the senior role a Councillor has at the City, Councillors will not jump the queue on your behalf. We are here to assist with the process — not bypass it.
Damage from plows
If your lawn or boulevard is damaged by a sidewalk or street plow, you can report the damage to 311. A member of our snow team will come out to inspect the property. Depending on snow conditions, that may occur fairly quickly or be delayed until the snow melts. You can accelerate the overall process by emailing photos to 311 if that is possible.
The cost of repairs is normally the responsibility of our snowplow contractor. Repair work will begin in the Spring once sod can be purchased from local suppliers.
Please note, that you are not allowed to have raised elements on the boulevard portion of your driveway and damage to features such as driveway curbs or markers will not be covered.
Here’s to good weather
Most of us like a little bit of snow, but almost all of us agree that we often get too much. Canadian winters can be long, but we can make winter a little bit brighter by helping each other through it. And better weather always comes — sooner or later.
