Blowing snow

Winter is tightening its icy grip on Canada and most of the country is now covered with snow. About one in four Canadian households (24%) told us they had a snow blower to clear their driveway or sidewalk in 2021, with that number rising to over half in the snow bound cities of St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Greater Sudbury and Barrie in Ontario. 

Gas rules the snow blower world, but electric and battery-powered models are gaining traction

Just under 9 in 10 Canadian households that had a snow blower (88%) reported owning a gas-powered variety in 2021, down from 95% in 2015. The share of households reporting an electric or battery-powered snow blower doubled over this period to 13%, with electric (9%) more common than battery (4%).

By way of comparison, 1.8% of the new motor vehicles registered in Canada in 2020 were zero-emission electric or battery-operated, up from 1.2% a year earlier.

Snow blowers most common in Atlantic Canada

The likelihood of owning a snow blower is highest on Canada’s East Coast and lowest on the West Coast. Over half of households in Newfoundland and Labrador (56%) reported owning a snow blower in 2021, the highest level nationally and up 5 percentage points from 2013.

Approximately 4 in 10 households in New Brunswick (41%) and Prince Edward Island (37%) reported having a snow blower, compared with just over one-quarter in neighbouring Nova Scotia (27%).

In 2021, 3 in 10 households in Manitoba (30%) and Saskatchewan (31%) and about one-quarter of those in Ontario (28%) and Quebec (24%) reported owning a snowblower.

Households in British Columbia (7%) and Alberta (18%) were least likely to report owning a snow blower in 2021.

Over half of households in St. John’s, Greater Sudbury and Barrie report having a snow blower

Canada’s snowiest cities are St. John’s in Newfoundland and Labrador, and Saguenay and Québec in “La belle province”, with all three getting over 300 cm of snow a year on average.

While it is not surprising that households in St. John’s (55%) were most likely to report owning a snow blower among Canada’s largest cities in 2021, less than one in four households in Saguenay (23%) and Québec (21%) did so, below the national average. A province-leading one in three households in Sherbrooke (32%) had a snow blower in 2021, compared with a low of one in seven in Montréal (14%).

Over half of households in the snow belt cities of Greater Sudbury (53%) and Barrie (51%) reported having a snow blower in 2021, the highest rates in Ontario, while households in Toronto (18%) were least likely to do so.

Households in Edmonton (22%) were over twice as likely to report having a snow blower compared with their neighbours to the south in Calgary (10%). Perhaps Calgarians put their faith in their renowned chinooks to remove the excess snow.