LICENSE YOUR SNOW BLOWER IN OTTAWA

  It was near 3 a.m. on Wednesday morning, while the city was under siege from a winter storm, a bylaw officer pulled over on Holland Avenue to inspect a snow-clearing crew in a small, commercial parking lot.
   The owner of the company, Kevin Joly, was taken aback by the urgent flashing lights on a high-end SUV, the U-turn stopping in the middle of the night, as if this was some kind of emergency. A few minutes later, after a testy exchange, Joly was handed a ticket for $260. The offence? The company snowblower was not carrying a numbered licence plate issued by the city.

License a snowblower? Joly, 31, said he was told that any device that was used to move snow for profit must be licensed by the City of Ottawa.

“What about my shovel?” he asked, quite logically.