Source order
We prefer current municipal, provincial and federal material over contractor blogs, forum posts or copied summaries. A dedicated winter-rule page or current bylaw is stronger evidence than a general municipal homepage. Each city page links the official authority used for the local summary.
Facts are stored separately
The winter-rule ledger does not treat one paragraph as proof of everything. Sidewalk responsibility, deadline, deadline trigger, special-property rules, winter parking, snow-route/event rules, private snow placement, enforcement and municipal sidewalk service are separate fields. That prevents a verified 24-hour deadline, for example, from being misread as proof of a parking rule that the source never stated.
Hard answers, context and unresolved fields
A hard answer is used only when the current official source directly supports the fact strongly enough for a clear statement. Context is used when the source supports a useful qualification but the rule depends on conditions, routes, property types or current municipal status. Unresolved means the reviewed source does not support a stronger site-wide claim; it does not mean no local rule exists.
No borrowed numbers
If a dedicated local source has not been verified, the city page does not import a deadline, fine, parking window or other number from a neighbouring municipality. This is especially important in the same metro area, where adjacent cities can use different clocks and winter-operation systems.
How structured data and software are used
SnowRulesCanada uses a structured municipal ledger and software to keep repeated fields consistent across city pages and tools. Automation organizes the reviewed facts; it is not treated as an independent legal source. A hard automated result is dependency-gated so a sidewalk deadline is not presented as a complete answer unless the associated responsibility and trigger are also supported.
Live weather is context only
Weather data can help a reader understand current conditions, but it cannot declare a snow emergency, activate a municipal parking ban or prove that a legal clearing clock has started. Those statuses must come from the responsible authority.
Review cycle and change control
The 100-city winter-rule ledger was reviewed in September 2026, with page-level snapshot dates shown where applicable. A snapshot date records the site’s review, not a claimed bylaw-change date. Time-sensitive rules should still be rechecked before relying on them, especially snow-route declarations, temporary parking bans and active winter operations.
Corrections
If a source has moved or an official rule conflicts with a page, send the municipality and official source through the corrections form. The goal is to narrow or correct an unsupported statement rather than preserve it for consistency.