Halifax residents continue the hunt for road salt

Halifax stores can’t seem to keep up with the demand for salt across the municipality.

Many people in the Halifax area are on the hunt for road salt amid icy conditions.

“Last time I can remember anything like this was three or four years ago when we had a winter that had a good amount of ice, this is definitely a lot more ice than that year was. It’s hard to keep up with,” says Colin Grover, Redmond’s Home Hardware owner and dealer.

Many stores like Redmond’s Home Hardware in Upper Tantallon say they are selling out faster than they can stock up.

“Our supply is down to zero again, there is just massive demand for the product right now both salt and traction aid of any sort. In the last week we have gone through 24 tonnes of product at our location,” says Glover.

Glover says they have been getting a few hundred calls a day about their salt stock as well as when their shipments are scheduled to arrive.

“Right now I have a sand order I put in last Monday and that looks like it’s gonna be a bit delayed. My salt orders, I’m on my third in the last week and by the time the next one gets here, I’m looking at over 60 tons of product total,” says Glover.

But it’s not necessarily a salt shortage; it’s more the trouble to get it here.

“There is plenty of salt in the mine. We have a beautiful great big mine but the trouble is the mine is two hours away from central Halifax, two to three hours, and when you’ve got back-to-back snow events, you can’t stockpile salt that much so the truckers are all working to go get salt, there’s long wait times at the mine and it’s just hard to get,” says Ali Alizy, Carlton Landscaping owner and operator.

The Halifax Regional Municipality says it has enough salt to go around.

“The municipality has a very healthy reserve of salt in its salt zones, so we have an adequate amount of salt to take care of the job here,” says spokesperson Laura Wright.

The municipality also says it is working around the clock to clear roads and sidewalks.

“We saw two back-to-back ice storms with mixed precipitation and freezing temperatures and that led to some really icy conditions and the development of a thick snow and ice pack. We have every available piece of equipment on the roads, on the sidewalks to address that including our machines with ice breaker attachments,” says Wright.

Alizy and his team gave out free salt this morning in the Spryfield area.

“Kinda taking care of the most urgent situations first like people that are old or disabled and can’t get their thing done,” says Alizy. “We have been able to set up shop at certain locations, people come pick up salt, the people that can pay for it pay for it, the people that can’t, they just come pick it up for free.”

For more Nova Scotia news, visit our dedicated provincial page