We’re doing better at making the city safe for pedestrians. We really are. This sidewalk was plowed by the city within hours of the end of the snow storm on Monday. Then all this snow was dumped back on it to create private parking. Isn’t this against the law? I hid the names of these businesses because I’m not trying to target them specifically. Hundreds of businesses and homeowners do this. If it’s illegal to have a basketball net on a sidewalk in a cul-de-sac in summer, how can it not be illegal to do this in winter?
The law cited in the basketball net story was Section 149.1 of the St. John’s Act , which states:
“Penalty for obstruction
149. (1) A person shall not, within the city limits place or deposit on a street or sidewalk, except in transit, boxes, barrels, packages, or other matter or thing, so as to obstruct free passage on the street or sidewalk.”
Meanwhile, Matt Milner from the St. John’s Winter-Unfriendly City Facebook Group pointed out that there are also laws specifically about not putting snow on plowed sidewalks so the answer to my question above is yes, it is illegal. Even though it’s a different law, it’s still a striking contrast to the response to a very minor sidewalk obstruction in summer. Does anybody know how often this law is enforced? Here’s the relevant section from the St. John’s Snow Removal Regulations:
7. (1) No person shall deposit snow or ice upon any street or sidewalk which street or sidewalk is cleared of snow or ice by the City.
(2) Any cost to the City of removing snow or ice deposited in violation of subsection (1) shall, in addition to any penalty prescribed hereunder, be recoverable from the violator or abutter.
8. (1) No person engaged in removing snow or ice from any property or other premises shall do so in any manner that obstructs vehicular traffic on a street or pedestrian traffic on a sidewalk.
(2) Any cost to the City of removing snow or ice deposited in violation of subsection (1) shall, in addition to any penalty prescribed hereunder, be recoverable from the violator or abutter.
Road Rage 
It’s just plain wrong. I’ve watched a person (here in Winnipeg) with a tractor dumping snow from a condo parking lot onto the boulevard near the sidewalk. In the past they did this and it slide over and blocked the recently cleaned sidewalk. I stopped and stood watching him. He stopped moving. Then he moved back to the lot and pushed the snow over onto the condo property.
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Glad he got the point! I have stood and watched people do this and they did not even seem to notice or realize it was a problem. That’s how challenging the culture is here in relation to rights of pedestrians in winter.
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