Walkway and Sidewalk Snow Clearing in Barrie, ON

Walkway and sidewalk snow clearing in Barrie means your front walk, porch steps and side path shovelled to the surface on every driveway visit, and the municipal sidewalk along your frontage done as well if you want it. It is for Barrie homeowners with visitors, deliveries and tenants who have to reach the door on foot, and for downtown property owners who must have their frontage clear by 10 am. You get a path a courier or a parent with a stroller can use without stepping into the snowbank.

Crew member shovelling a snowed in walkway at a Barrie Ontario home

What Walkway Clearing Involves

The tractor handles the driveway; a crew member with a shovel and a walk-behind blower handles the walk, the steps and the path to the side door or the garbage carts. We clear to the surface rather than packing a layer down, because packed snow turns to ice on the first thaw-freeze day. Where you add salting, the walkway gets it on the same visit. The trigger is the same 5 cm as the driveway snow removal service.

Who Clears Sidewalks in Barrie

Barrie is unusual among Ontario cities: the City plows public sidewalks itself, so there is no general by-law telling homeowners to clear the sidewalk within 24 hours. The exception is downtown. Under the Snow Clearing (Downtown) By-law (343) 947-5029, owners and occupants on listed sections of Dunlop, Collier, Mulcaster, Bayfield, Owen, Clapperton, Maple, Mary and Simcoe Streets must have the sidewalk clear before 10 am every day, with a fine of up to $5,000 and a City contractor charge-back if they do not. We put downtown frontages first on the morning route.

Outside downtown, the City clears priority sidewalks at 5 cm and the rest at 8 cm, and in a long storm that can take a day or more. Homeowners on corner lots or with a school route out front add the municipal sidewalk to the contract so it is open before the City reaches it.

Why a Clear Walk Matters to Your Liability

Ontario's Occupiers' Liability Act makes the owner responsible for people who come onto the property, and since January 29, 2021 section 6.1 gives anyone hurt by snow or ice 60 days to serve written notice on the owner or the contractor hired to clear it. Our visit log, with the time and what was cleared, is what answers that notice.

Landlords should know the Court of Appeal has ruled snow clearing cannot be made a term of a tenancy, so a rental's walkway is the landlord's job unless a separate contract says otherwise.

Walkway and Sidewalk Clearing FAQs

  • Do I have to clear the sidewalk in front of my Barrie house?

    Outside the downtown core, no; City crews clear public sidewalks. Downtown owners on the streets listed in By-law 2008-212 must clear by 10 am every day. We add the municipal sidewalk to any contract for homeowners who want it done before the City gets there.

  • Do you shovel steps and porches?

    Yes. Steps, the porch landing and the path to the side door or the carts are part of the walkway line. The City asks residents to leave a flat spot at the end of the driveway for waste carts, and we clear that too on pickup day.

  • Can you clear a path to the hydrant and the catch basin?

    Yes. Barrie has more than 4,000 hydrants and asks residents to keep the one in front of their house clear. If it is on your frontage we open it on every visit at no extra line.

  • Will you clear the walkway for a rental or a student house near Georgian College?

    Yes. We invoice the owner, send the visit log by email, and clear on the same 5 cm trigger whether or not the tenants are home.

Request a Written Quote

A visit, a measured driveway, and each service on its own line. Routes close when the tractors are full, so ask before November.

Request a Quote

A Clear Path to the Door

Walkways, steps and sidewalks on every driveway visit, downtown frontages before 10 am.