Ottawa’s snowiest winter, according to modern records, was in 1970-71.
That winter the national capital received a record 444.6 centimetres of snow .
The city was fluffy and white, but it wasn’t a pleasant experience for the many residents who scrambled to clear roads and dig out vehicles.
When it was over, in March 1971, the Ottawa Citizen issued “survival certificates” to readers who had shoveled their way through several cold months.
For residents in the west end neighbourhood of Manordale, one man in particular helped ease the strain.
“He was the only guy with a snowblower,” Cheryl Peever says of her father, Doug Peever, who cleared every neighbour’s laneway that winter.
Cheryl was 10 years old at the time. She recalls her father braving the heavy wind gusts every winter morning since then, too, as early as 6:30 a.m., so nearby residents could move through their neighbourhood with ease.
For more than a half-century, Doug Peever has cleared the snow on three pathways through the Roundhay Park Playground, located just steps from his home.
Residents in the area use the parkette as a throughway to two main schools in the area: Manordale Public School and St. John XXIII Catholic Elementary School.
Doug also cleared snow off every fire hydrant and drainage grate on the street.
Now, though, at the age of 87, he is asking the City of Ottawa to take over.
‘A long time and a lot of snow’
The decades Doug Peever spent servicing his community have mostly been in the hush of dawn and the dark of night. To this day, some residents are surprised to discover that he has been the one clearing snow from the three paths over the past half-century.
Cheryl says most assume the city plowed away that snow.
“The lines are as straight as an arrow,” Cheryl said. “The corners are precise.”
That was why it took Doug Peever between 45 and 60 minutes to clear that snow on a good day.
“After a snowstorm, I’ve seen him in (the park) for three hours before,” says Cheryl, who lives in the same neighbourhood.
“He goes over it and over it and over it.”
While many residents may not immediately recognize Doug, he says their dogs do.
“I always kept dog food in my pocket,” he says as he rocks back and forth in a wooden chair. “They’d recognize me before they’d recognize anything else.
“I told one lady, two years ago, I said, ‘I spend more on dog food than I do from groceries,’” he quips.
Even a broken wrist could not stop Doug from clearing snow at the park last winter. When the injury kept him from gripping the machine’s handle, he taped it down so he could keep the motor going, Cheryl says.
“If I have a problem, I’ll fix it somehow,” Doug adds.
Doug is moving out of the Roundhay Park neighbourhood, though, to Manotick, and he worries still about the park’s winter maintenance.
“I can’t turn my back,” he says. “I’ll be here. I’ll be here as soon as it snows.”
Going forward, Doug’s service to the community will be at a reduced rate, once a week, and driving in from Manotick could be a challenge, Cheryl says, alluding to his vision issues.
Could the city take over?
Knoxdale-Merivale Coun. Sean Devine says he is looking into whether the City of Ottawa can take over plowing at Roundhay Park.
“The city has a number of pathways that they plow in the winter and there is always more pathways that need plowing than pathways that we plow,” Devine says in an interview.
One of the criteria for getting a road or park on the winter maintenance list is whether it connects to a transit stop. “I can look into it, but I tried in the past to get other pathways on the winter maintenance list. Some I was successful with and some I wasn’t,” he says.
The city councillor adds: “It is wonderful and commendable that Doug stood up for his community and did this.”
Cheryl says snow clearing is a necessity for the community given that the park is a throughway for two schools.
“You’ve got strollers. We have a lot of older people in our community and some of them have walkers and canes,” she says.
Doug’s hard work and dedication were recognized earlier in November at the Manordale-Woodvale Community Association’s annual general meeting, where Doug received the Gord Hunter Award for community service.
“The only person I need to thank is Honda for their snowblowers,” he said that night.
“The paths were so straight you could have put a plumb line down them, and the corners were so perfectly done they looked like the hospital housekeeping team had been there!” association vice-president Ashley Parry said in her speech.
“It was pretty emotional,” Doug says, “just looking back at the times I had and the things we had to do and just trying to make it good for everybody else.
“When I stop and look back now, it means nothing to do it. But it is a long time and a lot of snow.”
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