A rare thing — the city itself answers, in its permits FAQ, the question everyone asks us: the dumpster “must be placed on your property (front yard, driveway, backyard, etc.)”. In Sainte-Thérèse the conversation is never about whether, only about where — and that is exactly our drivers' job. Two minutes on the phone settle the manoeuvre: where the car goes, the path of the bins — collection here is fully robotized, and the truck's arm needs its clearance on the day the bins come down to the driveway — and the useful height. The house rule of thumb: a 10 yard is a 20 yard filled halfway — same footprint, simply lower.
The second thing our drivers know about Sainte-Thérèse is that space is counted. At the 2016 census, 53.3% of the city's dwellings were apartments in buildings of fewer than five storeys and only 29.4% were single-detached houses — fewer than one dwelling in three is a single-detached house with its own driveway, on 9.4 km² holding 12,784 dwellings. Zoning frames the rest: a residential driveway entrance runs from 3.0 to 6.5 metres wide, and the parking area may not cover more than 40% of the front yard. In the Village, the urban plan describes “narrow, rolling streets”, irregular blocks and side yards already taken up by sheds — the city itself concedes that some lots there are “too small” for the box, and provides a temporary permission for that case (see below).
That leaves the surface, and the slope. The territory climbs from 30 to 75 metres above sea level — the city plows “the hills” before anything else, by its own published order of priority — and our drivers pick the angle of approach accordingly. Under the box, the planks of the PROTEC-O-SOL system spread the load over asphalt or pavers: nothing to supply, nothing extra to pay. The house tip for full protection: four flattened cardboard boxes, or a thin sheet of plywood, on the chosen spot before the truck arrives.
City of Sainte-Thérèse, “Permis” FAQ, “Présentation de la ville” and “Stationnement et déneigement” pages, zoning by-law 1200 N.S., 1199 N.S. urban plan, and CMM territorial portraits (2021 edition, 2016 census data) — consulted August 17, 2026.