The city of Montreal says it never suggested getting around on Friday would be easy.
Thursday's slush turned into ice as temperatures fell making commuting a challenge.
City spokesman Phillipe Sabourin said 30 centimeters of rain fell on Thursday, which was then followed by the temperature swing creating a big challenge for city crews.
"We were there, were speading last night, (Thursday night), massive amount of salt on every sidewalk. We must admit that the conditions on the main roads, the sidewalks are acceptable, sometimes good, but most of them are acceptable", Sabourin told the Aaron Rand show.
Sabourin, who stressed the job was "done" in the downtown area, added snow removal and salting as well as scraping will continue into the middle of next week.
As for the city's decision to stopping snow removal so the snow could absorb the anticipated rain prior to the deep freeze, Sabourin said they went based on the weather forecast they had at the time.
"They were wrong about the amount of snow, they were wrong about the rain we got", said Sabourin.
He went on to say forecasters were calling for 12 millimeters of rain, but it turned out to be 30, that the strategy would have been different had the city known it would get more precipitation.
Mayor Valerie Plante has appealed to citizens for patience.