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.

3. Progress of snow removal operations: Once the city starts clearing snow, this table charts the progress of snow-removal operations in each borough. Snow plowed to the sides of streets is transferred to trucks and taken to snow dumping sites. The table shows the number of kilometres of streets from which snow has been removed.