Snow-removal companies in northeastern Ontario could be left scrambling with first major storm of the season

As the first big snowstorm of the season approaches parts of northeastern Ontario, some private snow-removal companies could struggle to find enough workers to clear the fresh fallen snow.

Daryl Volpel is the owner and president of North Rock Property Services in Sudbury, which does snow removal.

Volpel said he arranged contracts with many of his clients before the winter, and is in good financial shape ahead of the first major storm of the season, but that's not the case for all operators. 

"I definitely think there's going to be companies out there that are going to struggle to try and find the manpower to do jobs."

Because of the lower than average snowfall so far in the region, Volpel said there hasn't been much work for snow-removal operators this season. Companies that charge their customers on a per-job basis haven't had much revenue coming in.

Volpel said labourers at many of those companies would have moved on to other work.

"We've been lucky this year," he said.

"I've got five guys that were working with me at the start of the year and I've still got four with me."

With his current crew, Volpel said, he's ready to clear snow for his customers as the region expects two winter storms this week.

'A typical northeastern Ontario snowstorm'

Peter Kimbell, a warning preparedness meteorologist with Environment Canada, said parts of northeastern Ontario, including the cities of Sudbury, Sault Ste. Marie and North Bay, are under a winter storm watch for Tuesday.

Those cities could see between 10 and 20 centimetres of snow each starting Tuesday afternoon and into the night.

"It will be snowy and it'll be winter," Kimbell said.

"We haven't seen a lot of this this winter so far, but it is going to be like that Tuesday."

Kimbell said a similar storm is expected to hit the region Friday night, into Saturday morning.

"A typical northeastern Ontario snowstorm."

Joe Rocca, director of linear infrastructure services with the City of Greater Sudbury, said the city is ready for both upcoming storms.

"We have the staff we need to respond to storms right now," he said. "We've been continuously hiring all through the fall and we're ready to go."

Rocca said even when it's not snowing, staff have kept busy preparing for the season and completing other tasks.

Although it's been a mild winter so far, Rocca said that won't necessarily affect next year's snow-removal budget.

"One year wouldn't impact the way we budget significantly," he said.

"But if we had several mild winters like we've experienced so far, you would start seeing a change in how we start budgeting for the winter control season."