Quebec Tyre Law Creating Storage Headaches

The introduction of a law compelling motorists in Canada’s Quebec province to fit winter tyres has not been a smooth ride. First tyre retailers across the nation reported a shortage of the seasonal product as ‘Quebecers’ scrambled to tog their vehicles out in the right rubber for the weather, then regional media sources began reporting sporadic winter tyre thefts, some thought to be the work of ‘organised’ crime cartels. Now it appears that those who see the lighter side of Canada – the creators of the ‘South Park’ television series are two shining examples – have been handed additional ammunition to use against the North American nation: Many in Quebec have discovered they haven’t a convenient nook and nary a spare cranny in which to store their off-season set of tyres.

The Toronto Star, Canada’s largest newspaper, shares with its readers the saga of Eric Kamau, a 32-year-old pharmacist from Montreal. “It was either use them as ottomans, or maybe coffee table legs, but like anyone with the slimmest of design sense, Eric Kamau thought he’d be better off finding a place to store his summer tyres,” the paper reports. Kamau, who lives in a two bedroom city flat, is just one of thousands of residents without a garage or shed in which to store the ‘other set’ of tyres – and the problem has grown so large that a new industry is emerging.

The tyre storage business is now booming in Quebec. According to the Toronto Star, there are now radio ads urging people to avoid the hassle of storing tyres themselves. Jean-Yves Bolduc, owner of the Centre du Pneu Lévis near Quebec City, says everyone wants their tyres professionally stored, from older people who find them difficult items to lug about through to business people who want their tyres changed and stored in one go. Indeed, one Montreal garage and distributor, says the paper, had to open a new storage location to meet the extra demand, and now holds more than 30,000 tyres for the season.

And as the Toronto Star relates, with a hint of melancholy, tyre storage has for many in Quebec become as unavoidable as bank fees: they need the service so they’ll have to pay. Come next spring, when the law expires for the season and people remove their winter tires, the unending tyre storage vicious circle will continue. As Kamau succinctly puts it: “I’m stuck with four extra tyres – forever!”