Snow Tire Footprint

After 40,000 kms, the all-season tires on the car had lost their grip for winter driving conditions, so I headed over to the tire shop to price some snow treads. I have seen enough of those ads where cars without snow tires slide all over the roadway and end up scaring the heck out of the passengers to be convinced that snow tires are a necessity here in the north. If the Province of Quebec thinks so highly of snow tires that they have made them mandatory, that’s a strong enough endorsement for me.

There has to some scientific rationale behind tread design for snow tires, but standing in front of a rack of different designs is confusing to a lay person like me. I tried picturing the tread throwing snow away from the gripping surface as the tire rotates; I could envision those little cracks grabbing onto the glare ice; the idea of the channels for slush seemed logical; and those little holes where you could insert a steel spike seemed really practical if I could put the spikes in when I needed them and remove them on warm dry days.

When I stood there staring blankly at the pile of black rubber for an inordinately long time, a clerk finally appeared from the depths of the warehouse or wherever it is that they hide, and asked if I needed any help. Yep, I said, what is the best winter tire for our conditions, and before he could point, I added, for the price.

He looked around to see if anyone could overhear us and then said – as long as it has the snowflake symbol on the side, it will work. That means it has been government certified. The rest is all hype. He left me looking at the sidewalls and disappeared as fast as Santas on Boxing day. I murmured a ‘thank you’ but I think he missed it. Okay, I thought, it is down to price. When I am in doubt, I go to the middle ground. Not the cheapest, not the most expensive.

I had settled on the Nordic Track, not because of the TV ads, but I just liked the tread pattern. It was kind of like looking at an Escher print. I was checking the size against the numbers I had copied off the sidewalks on the VW when something else caught my eye. Chile.

My first thought was that was one of those little spelling errors that the Chinese make when translating into one or the other of our official languages. I thought ‘Chilly’ tires was rather a cute mistake. I checked a couple of other sizes, thinking that they would have to use a different press for the different sizes. No, all the Nordics were manufactured in Chile.

Now, like you, I have had enough exposure to the Green politicking in the past month or so to be aware that everything has a green footprint. Even snow tires. What we are supposed to consider is how much pollution and environmental damage is caused when an item is manufactured, shipped, used and finally disposed of if not recycled. Shipping heavy rubber snow tires from Chile to North Bay has to leave a fairly large footprint, no matter the tread design.

I have nothing against Chileans, in fact I rather like their wine, but Holy Batmobile, Robin, do we have to have our snow tires made halfway around the world? If the Les cours de neige next door are running low on snow tires, it may be because they are stuck on a ship somewhere in the Panama canal. I know we can’t find employees to work at the wage they must be paying the rubber workers in Chile and China, but maybe we should start looking at that Green footprint problem a little closer. My guess is that some time in the not too distant past, when Ontario was a ‘have’ province, someone closed a tire plant and shipped the jobs offshore.

I think I can recall when Sandy McDonald, the old Scot on the CTC money, bought his tires from a plant in Barrie. An internet search turned up one automobile tire plant in Ontario and it makes only a limited number of sizes. I sure hope we have some kind of an exchange plan with Chile and we send them our ‘summer’ tires on the returning ship that brings us our Nordic Tracks. Maybe the Chileans are more concerned with the green footprint thing than we are and make their own summer tires.

It would be nice to see maple leaf beside that snowflake symbol, wouldn’t it, Sandy?