City officials say Montreal is ready for a weekend storm expected to dump up to 35 cm on the province, and promises snow clearing crews will be out in force.

The province approved longer shifts for municipal workers on storm duty, and Montreal has opened up five new dump sites for excess snow, said Marcel Tremblay, executive city council member responsible for snow removal.

Marcel Tremblay says Montreal can afford a few more snowfalls.
(CBC/Kai Nagata)

"We will have no more difficulty in the city of Montreal to push our snow and to pick it up, because we're announcing five new sites and we're announcing the government has authorized us to work 75 hours, one after the other for seven days."

Snow storage has been an issue in Montreal this winter because of near-record snowfalls.

More than 1.8 million cubic metres of snow have been dumped at the Turcot Yards forming an impressive two-kilometre long stretch of massive snowbanks sometimes 50-feet high.

There is still room at the Turcot site but other dumping grounds are filled to the brim.

The cost of snow removal has worried some boroughs where the winter snow clearing budget has been spent already with a few weeks of cold weather to go.

The boroughs have nothing to worry about because Montreal has a financial cushion available for them, Tremblay said.

"We're going to relook at all our budget situation, like we do all the time, so at that time we will analyze the question related to the snow for all of the boroughs."

As of March 5, Montreal received 316 cm of snow, 100 more than 2006-2007.

Quebec City broke the 400 cm threshold on Wednesday.

The Gaspé still holds a lead in the province with 416 cm of snow, prior to the weekend storm.