Brockville General Committee approves early road salt purchase to avoid further winter shortages

“I hate to talk about winter in the middle of July, but it is a necessary evil,” said councillor Deery before introducing a motion at the meeting of Brockville’s General Committee on Tuesday, July 21, 2026. While summer is in full swing, the city must now start preparing for the 2027 winter season by reviewing their 2026 maintenance materials inventory.

The General Committee unanimously approved a recommendation allowing city staff to purchase up to 1,500 tonnes of road salt and 1,000 tonnes of winter sand months in advance to ensure the city enters the 2026-27 winter season with adequate inventory after an unusually harsh 2025-26 winter left the city with unprecedented depleted inventories.

According to a staff report prepared by Phil Wood, Director of Operations and Yanick Beaudin, Supervisor of Public Works, frequent snowstorms, extended winter weather events and a province-wide road salt shortage meant Brockville consumed far more salt and sand than usual this past winter.

As a result, the city now has significantly less road salt on hand than it would normally carry into the start of winter, creating concerns about their ability to respond to future storms if supplies become difficult to obtain again.

The staff report notes Brockville typically likes to begin the winter season with about 1,000 tonnes of road salt in storage and finished the early season with less than 200 tonnes of road salt inventory. After exhausting much of its supply last winter, the city purchased and received approximately 300 mmore tonnes, currently leaving them with 500 tonnes today.

According to city officials, 500 tonnes is enough for only about 10 full 24-hour winter maintenance deployments before requiring additional deliveries.

“Although this may be adequate to complete the 2026 fiscal year, the current inventory levels require
staff to bulk-purchase salt in January 2027 when road salt is expected to be in the
highest demand,” the report stated.

Director of Operations Phil Wood explained that while buying salt in the summer doesn’t necessarily reduce its cost, it will greatly improve the city’s chances of actually receiving it.

“We’ve worked together with the counties to combine our purchasing power to get the best deal possible,” Wood shared. “The problem becomes demand. January and February are when demand is highest. It doesn’t necessarily affect the price as much as it does our ability to actually get it.”

Wood explained that because road salt is treated as inventory, the city only records the cost of the material as it is actually used, meaning any unused salt remaining at year-end will be carried forward into the following fiscal year.

“We do tender as part of a group purchasing effort with the counties,” Wood noted. “Our pricing structure is actually secure for an extended amount of time… We take advantage of our local partners to leverage that price, and it is fairly stabilized for us.”

He also assured council that overall, the city’s annual usage has remained relatively consistent, averaging between 1,500 and 2,000 tonnes depending on weather conditions.

Following a brief discussion, councillors voted unanimously to approve the recommendation, allowing city staff to begin replenishing Brockville’s winter maintenance inventory well before the first snowfall.