Quebec Man sells snowbank on Ebay

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CP - MONTREAL - As Montrealers melt with rage at their city's sluggish snow-clearing efforts, Michel Levesque's solution for the growing mound of snow on his front yard looks better with every new flake. Rather than shovel the two-metre-high snowbank near his home just north of Montreal, Levesque decided to sell it. By Friday afternoon, bidding for the snowbank reached more than $2,500 on the Internet auction site EBay. "It was a joke that has snowballed," Levesque said. "I never expected this." Money from the sale will benefit a Montreal youth group. Still, teenage boys shoveling driveways across the province are cursing Levesque's ingenuity, wondering why they didn't come up with the idea first. Montreal was hit with 68.1 cm of snow in a heavy storm that started last Sunday. City officials admitted Friday that so far they have only been able to clear about half of the city's streets. Irate citizens have bombarded city phone lines with complaints. Vital ambulance response times have slowed thanks to clogged streets. Marcel Tremblay, the Montreal councillor responsible for the city's snow-clearing operation, blamed the backlog on a higher volume of cars downtown and stricter environmental standards. "It's a difficult situation," Tremblay told a news conference Friday. "It's normal that citizens complain, we accept that, but sometimes they don't understand the real situation." The city has promised the streets will be clean by Christmas. Montreal isn't alone in its struggle with the fallout from last weekend's storm. Traffic in Toronto is only now returning to normal after getting hit with 25 centimetres earlier this week. And despite the city's $5-million clean-up effort, many small streets have yet to be plowed. Heavy rains forecast for the weekend threaten to compound the meteorological perils facing Montrealers. If the rain freezes, Tremblay said the city's snow-clearing operation will halt and shift to clearing drains and de-icing streets. "We're always prepared for the worst," he said. Levesque, for his part, isn't worried about rain melting away his charitable goldmine. His EBay site includes the caveat that the snowbank's quality may vary by the time the winning bidder picks it up next month. Levesque thinks it's the spirit of giving rather than frustration aimed at Montreal road crews that is driving bids upward. "I keep getting messages of encouragement," Levesque said. "Everyone finds the idea stupid, but fun at the same time because it benefits charity." The actual Ebay auction is located at http://cgi.ebay.ca/Magnifique-banc-de-neige_W0QQitemZ120200190615QQihZ002QQcategoryZ14883QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem