It’s as deep as the CN Tower is tall, located nearby in Goderich, Ont. — the world’s largest underground salt mine.
Yet good luck finding any of its ice-melting salt.
In the wake of two massive snowstorms, desperate Torontonians trying to clear ice and snow from driveways and sidewalks are being met with an unexpected challenge — retailers such as Canadian Tire and Home Depot are experiencing shortages of de-icing salt.
“We are actively working to manage inventory of rock salt and ice melt in our Toronto stores,” Jena Rajanayagam, spokesperson for Home Depot Canada, said in an email. “Customers may also consider products for traction such as sand and gravel.”
Supplies at salt terminals are critically low with salt mines prioritizing municipalities, said Joe Salemi, executive director of Landscape Ontario, an organization that represents 3,000 landscape and snow-removal contractors.
“It’s awful to say, but the homeowner is probably the most affected,” said Salemi, “because if they try and go and buy a bag of salt right now, they’re not going to be able to find it.”
The supply shortage stems from this year’s more frequent and generally lighter snowfalls, said Salemi.
“This winter we have seen many more smaller, lighter snowfalls,” said Salemi. Lighter snowfalls, he says, require more salt, because crews apply it multiple times, but only apply salt once after a heavy snowfall.
“The snowfall that we got over the weekend,” said Salemi, “when it comes in large quantities like that, we actually use a lot less salt.”
Salt mine production rates are based on snowfall data from recent winters, Salemi added, which we’ve already surpassed this winter.
Toronto has seen 87 cm of snow so far this winter — 20 cm more than it got all of last winter, and about 20 per cent more than you would expect by mid-February, said Dave Phillips, Environment Canada’s longtime senior climatologist who retired last year.
“Last year, I said, we cancelled winter,” Phillips said, adding that many people blamed the moderate temperatures on climate change. “But there will be these moments where you think, ‘Oh my gosh, the ice age has cometh.’ ”
Landscape Ontario first heard about the salt shortage early last week in reports from private contractors who said they were having difficulty sourcing road salt to take care of parking lots.
“Ontario is experiencing a road salt shortage,” Draglam Salt, one of the largest independent salt distributors in the province, said on its website. “Please be advised that pricing may be impacted as we procure salt from out-of-market sources.”
When asked how long it would take for retail stores to restock the de-icing products, Salemi said it “could easily be three to four weeks by the time production is able to catch up.”
The storms last week brought the city 60 centimetres of snow causing delays at Pearson airport, major transit disruptions and a long backlog of city snow removal requests.
Toronto is expected to take up to three weeks to remove the snow, warned Barbara Gray, general manager of the city’s transportation services.
With files from Mark Colley
