Salt shortage? Kingston says what salt shortage?

Municipalities have been using more road salt to clear roads than they had in previous years.

While many municipalities in Ontario are worried about how much road salt they have left, there doesn't appear to be any problem at the City of Kingston.

The winter weather this season has seen a lot of snow being dumped on. The Kingston area alone had more than 40 centimetres of snow fall last week.

With the amount of snow and ice covering roads, sidewalks, and pathways, municipalities are using much more salt in the first two months of this season compared to previous years. This has led to some rationing their salt supply in order to make it last the rest of the winter season.

But Adam McDonald, operations manager at the City of Kingston, says their salt supply has not reach to levels where they are cutting back on usage.

He says what he has been experiencing are the delays in having the salt shipped to Kingston.

Places like Brockville, Lanark County, and Northhumberland County have cut back on the use of road salt to stretch their supply. Last week, about a hundred dump trucks were seen lining up outside a salt mine in Goderich waiting to pick up salt to transport back to their towns.

McDonald says they would sometimes get requests to lend some of their salt supply to other municipalities.

Another reason Kingston has been able to maintain their supply of road salt is the bitterly cold temperatures.

McDonald says that combined with the amount of snow makes the use of road salt less effective.

Last week, City Council finalized the 2026 operating and capital budgets. Mayor Bryan Paterson had said snow removal is one area that is tough to budget for because it is hard to predict how much snow is going to fall.

McDonald says they are getting close to spending the same amount for snow removal this year as they did in previous years combined.

In the meantime, McDonald says crews continue to work around the clock clearing snow from arterial roads, side streets, sidewalks, and paths.

Story by Ken Hashizume