Beginning in the winter of 2026, the town of Riverview will stop providing snowplowing for church parking lots.
Ten years ago, the town began providing the service to the 13 places of worship.
Since then, seven have already opted out and are paying private contractors on their own.
“As of the last few years, there are six churches that operate, daycares and other types of social programs outside of these churches. It was just logical that eventually the town could discontinue, I guess, plowing private parking lots. So it seems to be kind of creating an unfairness to some of the churches where they are paying for snow removal versus others where they’re not,” Director of Public Works Michel Ouellet explained to Town Council this week.
The cost to plow these six lots came in at around $52,000.
An initial motion was to discontinue plowing services effective this winter, but that was withdrawn, in an effort to give the churches more formal notice of the service that will be discontinued.
” Cutting them off cold turkey doesn’t sit right with me. Yes, it is unfair that we plow six and not the other seven. But I brought this up a few years ago, and I was told it was an opt-in service at the time or something, but it probably was a handshake agreement at the time. This is way back before you and I were probably born, Your Worship. And this would also be an unbudgeted cost for the churches, which would create a financial hardship for them. So this will give them a year’s notice, and they can budget for it,” Deputy Mayor Jeremy Thorne expressed to the Town Council.
The vote was unanimous in favour of stopping the snowplowing service in 2026.
