Snow Removal

The City of Waterloo is responsible for winter road maintenance, including plowing, sanding and salting roadways, crosswalks and city facility walkways/parking lots. Using provincial guidelines set out in the Municipal Act, all roads in the city are categorized based on their intended use and maintained accordingly.

Please be advised that all maintenance standards are based on post-event operations (i.e., after a snowfall or ice storm has ended). At all times we do our best to clear snow and ice quickly from the roadways. Many factors, including temperature, forecasts, and precipitation determine how/when plowing, salting and sanding take place. See our snow-clearing priorities page for more information.

Parking bans during snow events

Under the city's traffic and parking bylaw, parking is prohibited on all streets at any time a snow event is declared until it is cancelled. Vehicles parked on the street will be ticketed and possibly towed. A ticket for parking on the street during a snow event is $80. Please check the snow event news feed on this website, or our Twitter account @citywaterloo to determine if a snow ban has been declared. Subscribe for parking ban alerts through our snow event news feed, too.

Please note: the city doesn't allow on-street parking between 2:30 and 6 a.m., but may grant an exemption if a snow event hasnt' been declared. To register a car for overnight parking, call 519-747-8559 prior to 1:30 p.m. or register the vehicle at waterloo.ca/parking. To report cars that are illegally parked in Waterloo, call 519-747-8785.

Questions

To enquire about winter road maintenance, please contact our Service Centre at (519) 886-2310 (7 a.m. - 4:30 p.m., Monday to Friday) or notify us on Twitter @citywaterloo.

For additional assistance outside of normal business hours, please call (519) 886-2310 and follow the prompts dependent upon your concerns.

How you can help

• Do not park on the street during a snowstorm or while snow-clearing operations are underway
• Clear snow away from fire hydrants
• Pile all snow from your driveway and sidewalks on your property, not on the road
• Please be patient while you wait for plows to get to your street
• Remind children not to climb or play in snow banks
• On your garbage day, place garbage and recycling containers close to the road edge but in your driveway so that they do not interfere with snow removal
• Drive smartly - give yourself extra time and distance
• Give plows plenty of room and remember they may need to back up
• When approaching a plow, keep your headlights on and stay to the right

These activities improve road safety, increase the efficiency of our snowplowing operations and help reduce the cost of winter services by allowing us to plow properly with one pass.