A municipality sets out in their winter operations plan the winter season dates based on local experience. However, there may be winter events pre and post winter season. This guideline suggests topics to be included in a winter operations plan for the preparations leading up to the winter season and decommissioning of winter operations at the end of the winter season.

Level of Service policy allows a municipality to identify what they will do to attempt to meet public expectations and how they will respond to a winter event taking into account available resources and local historic experience with normal winter events.
A successful winter control program is guided by a council endorsed policy. In the wake of the Ontario Court of Appeal decision in Giuliani which largely renders the defence under s.4 and s.5 of Ontario Regulation 239/02 Minimum Maintenance Standards (MMS) inoperative in most practical circumstances, current municipal Level of Service policies (LOS) tied to compliance with the tables in s.4 and s.5 are likely to be inadequate in ensuring a  defence to negligence claims. As a result, it is recommended that municipalities in Ontario review their LOS, and revise them to exceed the tables in s.4 and s.5. This document provides suggestions  to assist in the development of a level of service policy.

This report presents a five-year review of the progress achieved through implementation of the Code of Practice for the Environmental Management of Road Salts. The Code was published in the Canada Gazette in April 2004 under the Canadian  Environmental Protection Act, 1999 with the objective of ensuring environmental protection while maintaining roadway safety. The Code was developed by Environment Canada through a multi-stakeholder consultation process involving stakeholders from across Canada, representing the federal, provincial/territorial and municipal transportation sectors; industry; the Transportation  Association of Canada; environmental groups; and universities.

A patroller is required to observe both weather and road conditions  either in the field or electronically to determine if a winter event response to a winter event is required (typically a municipality using electronic surveillance will supplement the electronic information with field observations). A patroller does not normally need to patrol all roads to determine whether a winter event response is required. This document sets out suggestions for selecting a route of representative roads.

A patroller is required to observe both weather and road conditions either in the field or electronically to determine if a winter event response to a winter event is required. The purpose of this document is to provide municipalities with guidance as to what  knowledge a patrol person would need to initiate a response to a winter event.