In Montreal's southwest, by the Lachine Canal, trucks come and go like clockwork, dumping loads of snow as blowers the size of tanks send it cascading in the air onto a 10-storey-high bank. Known as the Angrignon snow depot,

That changed after the turn of the century, when the city took charge. In the early 1900s, labourers were hired to shovel snow for 25 cents an hour. It was taken away in horse-drawn carts. The first snowblower to clear the streets was purchased by the City of Montreal nearly 100 years ago, in 1928.

As Montreal continues its snow clearing operations – things are progressing slower than expected – even if the city said residents should expect it to take at least eight days, if not more to get everything that fell from back-to-back snowstorms cleared.