Snow Plowing.

Mostly semantic in Canadian commercial practice. "Snow plowing" emphasises the mechanical operation of pushing snow off the working surface to a stack-out area. "Snow removal" emphasises the complete clearing of the surface, which may include hauling away or on-site melting after plowing. For residential driveways the two terms are interchangeable because snow is always windrowed to the side yard or municipal boulevard. For downtown commercial lots they differ slightly because removal may include hauling or melting, with cost implications. At snow.ca we quote based on the actual scope of work needed; we do not upsell "removal" to a customer who needs "plowing" or vice versa.

snow.ca dispatches from local depots in 80+ Canadian cities. Use the city search at /cities or enter your address at /quote and the platform automatically matches you to the nearest depot, the nearest available crew, and the nearest backup unit for storm-priority dispatch. Quotes are returned online with the actual crew and dispatch information. The dispatching depot is named in the contract and on every photo-proof report. We do not use anonymous sub-contractor networks; your crew is the same crew on every storm of the season.

Brine spray is a liquid de-icer (typically sodium chloride at 23 % concentration or magnesium chloride at 30 %) applied to pavement 24–6 hours before forecast precipitation. The brine soaks into pavement micro-texture and leaves a chloride residue. When snow begins to fall, the residue prevents the first snow contact from freezing into a bond — the snow stays loose on top of the brine layer instead of locking to the pavement as compacted ice. Mechanical clearing then removes the snow cleanly down to bare pavement, with no scraping and no chemical post-treatment. Pre-treatment cuts post-storm salt consumption 30–60 % and speeds plowing 2–3x. It is bundled in all commercial contracts and available as a $0.005–$0.015 per sq ft add-on for residential properties.

Properly executed snow plowing does not damage asphalt, concrete in good condition, or properly bedded pavers. The risks come from steel-blade contact with vulnerable surfaces: unsealed decorative concrete in the first 12 months of cure, exposed-aggregate concrete, loose-set pavers, asphalt with frost heaves, and any surface with overhanging utilities. We map every residential driveway at signup and dispatch the right equipment — rubber-edge plows for paver driveways, hand-shovel crews for delicate decorative concrete, skid-steer with rubber cutting edge for heated driveways. If your driveway has known sensitivities, tell us at signup and we will document them in the dispatch record. We carry $5M general liability insurance for the rare case of actual damage; in 5+ seasons of operation, residential driveway damage claims have averaged under 0.4 % of visits.

Depends on city. Toronto, Mississauga, Ottawa, and Hamilton see 10–14 plowable storm events in a typical winter (>2 cm accumulation). Montréal, Québec City, and the Saint-Maurice valley see 18–24 events. Calgary, Edmonton, Saskatoon, Regina, Winnipeg see 12–18 events but lower per-storm accumulation. Vancouver, Victoria, and the southern BC coast see 3–8 events but with high variability — some winters under 4, some over 10. Saguenay, Sudbury, Thunder Bay, St. John's, Sherbrooke see 24–35 events. Seasonal plans are priced based on the city's 5-year average storm count; if a winter delivers significantly more storms than average we absorb the additional cost, and if significantly fewer we do not refund — the structure averages out across the customer base.