This week-end we had the first real snow storm of the season (about 20~30 cm) as well as some very cold temperature (in the -20s °C or in the -30s °C with the chill factor). Apparently, it is the first time that we have this combination of snow storm and extreme cold weather since 1920!

Here is a time-lapse video of the storm taken between 2019/01/19 16h00 and 2019/01/20 16h00. So there you have twenty-four hours fast-forwarded in a little less than a minute:

Of course, the borough is in no hurry to pick the snow. Like I previously mentioned, in early January, the snow had not been picked up at all since the beginning of the season which caused piles of ice to form on he street making it quite challenging for the car to park. And when they did try to pick up the icy snow piles in the second week of January, the ice was so hard that it was practically impossible to remove it all, leaving an ice layer as high as the sidewalk (4 to 6 in.)! And when it snows on that, try not to get stuck when you park your car. I understand now why so many people have SUV despite living in the city!

The borough also had trouble removing the snow from the sidewalks. Yesterday I have seen the sidewalk tractor actually working only early in the morning — it passed in front of my house around 7h29. With the wind drift, the people cleaning their driveway or cars and putting the snow on the sidewalk (with total disregard for their fellow citizen who are walking) the sidewalks quickly became completely unpassable for pedestrians. I did see a sidewalk tractor around 15h37, but it was driving in the middle of the street without any snow-plow in the front or even a salt-spreader in the back. In the evening, the sidewalks had not been cleared for over twelve hours and I was worried that my wife would have trouble walking back from the bus stop after work, so I called the city’s public works to let them know and a sidewalk tractor did the job around 22h45…

It really seems that this new administration in city hall is either incompetent or inexperienced or too eager to save money. I don’t mind paying more taxes year after year if the quality of service is maintained or improves. However, if I paid more taxes and the quality of service decreases (and the quality of services has clearly decreased since the beginning of this new administration), then I am really not happy. And since, on top of that, this administration has not been treating its workers well, I seriously regret having voted for them…

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