Montreal snowstorm cleanup underway after city gets record 39 cm

Snow removal trucks are on the streets of Montrealcleaning up after the first major snowfall of the season.

Environment Canada says 39.2 cm of snow fell on the city on Tuesdaya record snowfall for Dec. 29.

City spokesmanJacques-Alain Lavalle said the cleanup will cost roughly $20 million, and he urged the co-operation of Montrealers in getting the job done as quickly as possible.

"If people want us to remove that snow as quickly as possible, please do it by removing your car," he said.

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He said it's too soon to say when the work will be complete, explainingthatcrews will take a break from 7 p.m. ET on New Year's Eveuntil Jan. 2.

This year,Montreal is trying a new approach to snow clearing that it says will harmonize the process across the island.From now on,all boroughs will clear snow away at the same time.

AnieSamson, the city councillor in charge of the program,says the plan is meant to eliminate confusion about which streets have been clearedand which have not.

"The new policy that we put in place is to respond to all the boroughs that year that did not start at the same time," Samson said.

Shesaid people can getsnow-clearing updates with the city's new smart phone app,Info-Neige.

The snowfall came as a relief to ski hill operators in Quebec, who had been struggling to keep trails open during the warm weather earlier this month.

Until the storm hit, many hills in the provincewerelimited to a few runs.

"This year was difficult because it was very warm so we couldn't make snow," saidSbastienBertrand, a spokesmanfor Ski Saint-Bruno.