Commercial snow and ice, November to April
Cleared before opening.
Documented before noon.
A snow contract is not really a clearing service. It is the record you produce eighteen months later when a statement of claim arrives and somebody asks what your property looked like at 7am on a Tuesday in February.
- Trigger
- 2 cm
- Same on every site. No threshold games.
- Lot cleared by
- Opening
- Or the hour you nominate.
- Documentation
- Every visit
- Time-stamped, retained 24 months.
- Insurance
- CGL + WCB
- Certificates before you sign.
- Contract
- 3 structures
- Per push, hybrid or seasonal.
What we clear, and in what order
The same square footage is a different job depending on who walks across it. Priorities are set by your property class and your tenants' hours, not by a template.
Retail and strip mall
Customer entrances, then accessible stalls, then the lot
Cleared before the first tenant opens, not before the first customer arrives — those are different hours and we use yours. Cart corrals and entry mats are part of the scope, because that is where the falls happen.
Exposure. Highest slip-and-fall exposure of any property class. Public, unpredictable footwear, no duty to look where they are going.
Industrial and warehouse
Loading doors and truck apron, then yard, then parking
Dock approaches and trailer parking get cleared to a standard a loaded trailer can actually use. Yard snow is stacked where it will not block sightlines at the gate or flood a door when it melts.
Exposure. Operational rather than public. A blocked dock costs a shift, and a frozen apron damages equipment.
Condo and multi-family
Fire exits and walkways, then visitor parking, then the ramp
Underground ramps, garbage enclosures and every walkway a resident uses at 6am. We service the routes people actually take, not just the ones on the site plan.
Exposure. Resident complaints reach your board directly. Documentation is what ends the argument at the next meeting.
Professional and medical
Accessible routes and entrances, then staff parking
Accessible parking, ramps and the path between them cleared and treated to bare surface first, every event. Patients arriving at a clinic are the population least able to manage ice.
Exposure. Accessibility obligations sit on top of ordinary occupier liability. A blocked accessible route is a separate problem from a slippery one.
Priority zones
Agreed at the site walk and written into the contract, so there is never a conversation in February about whether something was in scope.
Priority one
Entrances, accessible routes, fire exits, loading doors
Priority two
Sidewalks, walkways, accessible stalls, cart corrals
Priority three
Main drive lanes and primary parking
Priority four
Overflow parking and back lot
| Zone | What it covers | Standard |
|---|---|---|
| Priority one | Entrances, accessible routes, fire exits, loading doors | Cleared and treated to bare surface before your nominated open hour, every event |
| Priority two | Sidewalks, walkways, accessible stalls, cart corrals | Cleared and treated within the same window, hand crews where machines cannot reach |
| Priority three | Main drive lanes and primary parking | Cleared in the same push, stacked to agreed locations |
| Priority four | Overflow parking and back lot | Cleared within 24 hours of accumulation ending, or on your schedule |
The record you actually need
Most contractors produce a monthly invoice and nothing else. When a claim lands, an invoice proves you paid someone — not that the lot was cleared at 6am on the day in question.
Time-stamped arrival and departure
Every visit logged with start and finish. Not a monthly summary written after the fact — a record made at the time.
Photographs of each priority zone
Entrances, accessible routes and lot condition photographed on completion, geotagged to your site.
Material application records
Product, quantity and location for every ice control application, including the cold-weather blends used below −10 °C.
Weather records for every event
Snowfall, temperature and timing for the date of each service, from Environment Canada's published daily records for Calgary, so the log explains itself.
Retained for 24 months
Slip-and-fall claims rarely arrive the same week. The record is still there when a statement of claim shows up eighteen months later.
Exported on request
Your insurer or counsel asks, we send the file. You do not have to reconstruct a winter from memory.
How the contract is built
Three ways to structure it. We will tell you plainly which fits your site, including when the cheapest-looking option costs you more in a heavy year. Pricing is quoted per site after a walk.
| Structure | How it bills | Where it fits | Who carries the weather risk |
|---|---|---|---|
| Per push | Billed per qualifying event by lot square footage, with depth multipliers above 10 cm. | When your board wants cost tied directly to snowfall. | You carry the weather risk. A heavy winter costs more. |
| Hybrid | Fixed monthly base covering sidewalks, entrances and ice control, with lot clearing billed per event. | Predictable budgeting on the liability-critical areas without full seasonal exposure. | Shared. The part that generates claims is fixed; the part that generates volume is not. |
| Seasonal fixed | One price for the season regardless of event count, set from site history and measured productivity. | One line in the operating budget, agreed in advance. | We carry it. Offered once we have a season of data on your site. |
What a site walk involves
- 1
We walk it with you
45 minutes on site. We measure the lot, count entrances and fire exits, note the accessible routes, and find out where snow can actually go.
- 2
We agree the priority zones
Which areas get cleared first and by what hour. This is the part that decides whether the contract works, and it is written into the agreement rather than assumed.
- 3
You get a written proposal
Scope, zones, response standards, all three contract structures priced, and the documentation you will receive. Inside three business days.
- 4
Nothing is signed on the walk
Take it to your board, your owner or your insurer. We would rather you compared it properly than signed it quickly.
Bring these and we quote faster
- Lot dimensions or a site plan, if you have one
- Linear footage of sidewalk you are responsible for
- Entrance, fire exit and loading door count
- Your tenants' earliest open hour
- Last season's invoices and any service complaints
- Any slip-and-fall history on the property
Seven questions to ask any snow contractor
Ask us these. Then ask whoever else you are considering, and compare the answers rather than the prices. We would rather lose to someone who answers them well than win against someone who does not.
What is your trigger depth, and is it the same for sidewalks?
Many contracts trigger the lot at 5 cm but leave sidewalks to a separate, looser standard. Sidewalks are where people fall.
What documentation do I get, and how long do you keep it?
A claim can arrive eighteen months after the event. A contractor who cannot produce a time-stamped record leaves you defending it alone.
Who is liable if someone falls, and what are your limits?
Ask for the certificate, not the assurance. Check the limit is proportionate to your property, and that you are named as additional insured.
Are you WCB covered, and can I see the clearance letter?
Without it, an injured worker on your property can become your problem.
How many other sites are on my route, and where am I in it?
A contractor who has oversold their capacity cannot tell you this. One who has not will answer immediately.
What happens in a 30 cm event or freezing rain?
Every contractor performs in a 5 cm snowfall. The contract is worth what it delivers in the events that actually cause claims.
Where does the snow go once the lot is full?
Stacking decisions affect sightlines, drainage and stall count. Agree it in October, not in February.
Mid-season takeovers
Most Calgary commercial contracts are signed between August and early October, and planning ahead is the better outcome. But if your contractor has stopped answering, is arriving after your tenants, or is billing for passes nobody can verify, you do not have to wait until next August.
Walked within 48 hours
Snow on the ground helps. We see where it drifts, where it stacks and where ice forms — information an August walk cannot give us.
We tell you if we cannot
Routes are built around commitments already made. If your site would make us late somewhere else, we say no rather than failing both of you.
Prorated from day one
You pay from the day we start. No penalty for joining late, no buying months that have already gone.