Canadian road salt is being shipped to the U.S. while Ontario municipalities run low

An early and relentless winter is depleting road salt supplies across Canada, raising concerns about safety and supply shortages.

Goderich, Ont. is home to the world’s largest underground salt mine, and yet Ontario municipalities are grappling with dwindling supplies of this essential winter commodity.

London, Ont. has declared “operational adjustments” to preserve its remaining salt stock.

East of Toronto, in Pickering, salt domes are running low. That means whatever remains “must be used carefully, to help ensure supply lasts through the remainder of the winter,” according to the city’s website.

“If there’s a municipality that only has a thousand tons in stock, because that was their average usage over their last 10 years, this year they might already be nearly out - and we’re only in January,” shares Dave Gerow, president of Triple J Contracting.

Gerow’s contracting company services multiple large accounts, including airports, hospitals and government facilities. His days are now in part spent sourcing salt and figuring out how to use it sparingly.

“If we get a busy weekend, a multi-day winter storm or an ice storm, there’s a high possibility we could run out of salt, and we’re not alone,” says Gerow. Who adds that he doesn’t think Ontario is dealing with a shortage of salt; he believes it’s a made-in-Ontario supply chain issue.

“It does seem odd that we have the biggest salt mine in the world, and we can’t get salt here,” he points out.

Ontario is home to large salt mines in both Windsor and Goderich. In Goderich, the mine there produces about 7.25 million tons of salt each year but has the capacity to produce 9 million tons.

This week in Goderich more than 100 empty trucks lined the roads outside of the world’s largest underground salt mine, waiting to pick up the vital granular commodity to bring back to municipalities across Ontario.

Salt shipped south

The mine is owned by Compass Minerals, an American company. On any given day, you’ll see large ships at the port loading up on Canadian salt bound for market in the United States, all while there’s a reported shortage in Ontario.

Gerow believes the provincial government needs to intervene. In an email, CTV National News asked Doug Ford’s office if the premier sees an issue with an Ontario-based mine shipping Canadian salt stateside while the province grapples with a shortage close to home.

Premier Ford’s staff didn’t respond to our question. Instead, they sent our request for comment to the Ministry of Transportation. The Ministry didn’t answer our specific question either; although the ministry spokesperson who corresponded with us shared that their own quantity of salt, that services Ontario highways, “remains sufficient.’

In an email to CTV News, Compass Minerals wrote in-part that, “We remain committed to serving all our valued customers in Ontario and all markets that we serve.”

Though even at the consumer level, there appears to be a challenge keeping salt in stock. At Bowman’s Home Hardware in Cambridge Ontario, they’ve had to start searching for new suppliers to try and keep up with demand, according to owner Todd Bowman.

Distributors who supply bulk road salt to large contractors, as well as municipalities, have resorted to sending trucks to the port in Montreal where long lines have been reported to pick-up salt arriving from as far away as Egypt.

“There’s a massive backlog at the port in Montreal and some trucks are making the drive and they aren’t even getting a load in some cases,” says Gerow, who notes that the price of salt per ton has more than doubled.

“The government needs to really consider what happens when we run out of road salt? One more big storm and we could be completely out,” says Gerow.

Some commercial distributors believe that the supply chain issues in Ontario this winter run so deep that they’re forecasting a continued shortage into next year.