At least one more week before Montreal boroughs are cleared of ice storm debris

It could be another two weeks before all the broken branches littering streets and sidewalks have been carted away, the City of Montreal said on Friday, even though the ice storm was three weeks ago.

About 80 per cent of the work has been completed, a spokesperson said, but piles of tree debris are still making it difficult for pedestrians to get around in some neighbourhoods and partially broken limbs are still dangling in mid-air.

The goal is to ensure that "the opening and start-up dates of the various summer facilities are not delayed," according to Audrey Gauthier.

Parks are also strewn with branches. "It's still dangerous for the kids, not just for the kids for adults also," Côte-des-Neiges resident Ginally Onga told CTV News.

Others making their way to various destinations simply can't believe the cleanup is taking so long.

"I'm going to the Jewish (General) Hospital to visit a friend and I'm surprised that all of this is still around," said Veronica Payne.

"It's ridiculous, people live around here and this is not the way Montreal should be," she said.

UP TO THE BOROUGHS

Each borough is responsible for cleaning up its territory. The Plateau-Mont-Royal borough has made progress, a city councillor said, with about half the work in large parks complete, and three-quarters of streets cleared.

 "It's a colossal task to clean it all up," said Alex Norris, especially since the borough only has two wood chippers. Norris said a third is on the way and they're contracting a private company to help speed up the process, something encouraged by the central city.

"Just getting your hands on wood shredding machines in the greater Montreal area is quite a challenge. As you might imagine there's immense demand for them right now," said Norris.

He expects the work to be wrapped up by next Friday.

The Cote-des-Neiges-NDG borough is taking a similar approach and also expects to have all the debris removed by next week.

The mayor's office explained in a statement that it too will hire some private sector workers to help them move more quickly and has also "rented an additional mega-chipper. This allows us to shred very large quantities of branches. It saves us a lot of time."

The borough encourages residents to call 311 if they notice fallen branches in their way, to help teams plan their work.