Vancouverites may have just suffered through a major snowstorm and seen their roads and highways turned into skating rinks by freezing temperatures, but they can drink tap water again.

The city's medical officer of health lifted boil-water advisories for Vancouver, Burnaby and the north shore on Monday.

"With continuing downward trends in turbidity ... the medical health officers believe the water is safe for people to drink," said Dr. Patricia Daly.

Residents were told to run their taps for three minutes to flush out any stagnant water. The water will still appear cloudy.

A boil-water advisory was launched on Nov. 16 after a severe rainstorm mucked up the city's three freshwater reservoirs. Water from those reservoirs isn't filtered.

As people in the Lower Mainland wound down their day after a storm dumped from 20 to 50 centimetres of snow, they had to deal with unseasonable, sub-zero temperatures.

An arctic outflow warning was in effect for the Fraser Valley and Environment Canada predicted wind-chill temperatures will dip below -20 degrees Celsius in some places.

Vancouver and the Lower Mainland looked at evening temperatures of -5 to -8, with light snow falling.

In the central interior, lows of -22 to -29 were predicted for the north, with the south getting down to -15.

Commuter hell, schoolkid heaven

The combination of snow and cold led to the closure of some Greater Vancouver schools on Monday.

Many of those children freed spent their time trying to catch snowflakes on their tongues, building snowmen or tobogganing.

Life was more serious, however, for adults trying to get to work.

One man in Abbotsford told CTV Vancouver he had a layer of ice on his vehicle under the blanket of snow. Another said the toughest part of his day was "getting out of my driveway."

Commuters faced icy roads as the snow and slush froze. Many of those who did chance a trip wound up in the ditch.

In the Fraser Valley, blowing snow made driving treacherous, especially given the ice underneath.

One death was blamed on road conditions.

While people complained about the state of the highways, B.C. Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon told reporters: "I think we just have to recognize that when you have this kind of an extraordinary snowfall in a very short period of time, there's no amount of plowing and salting that's going to be able to deal with the fact that the snow is coming down in huge buckets."

Those who left cars behind faced jam-packed buses and trains.

The SkyTrain service only had 40 of 55 trains in service. Some passengers said it took them as long as one hour to make the same journey that took 20 minutes otherwise.

Flights at Vancouver's airport were late or cancelled.

Snowfall amounts ranging from 20 to 50 centimetres were recorded in the Vancouver area, Fraser Valley and parts of Vancouver Island since Saturday.

The weight of the snow also downed trees and brought down branches onto power lines, cutting off electricity to 81,000 people from Victoria to Chilliwack.

"This is certainly a challenge for us,'' B.C. Hydro spokeswoman Elisha Moreno told The Canadian Press.

"This is the second winter storm in less than a month.

"We realize that it is colder weather, which is giving us a sense of urgency in terms of things to be concerned about like freezing pipes and customers being cold in their homes so we are working as quickly and safely as we can to get that power restored."

Homeless deaths

Meanwhile, the bitter cold that has gripped most of the Prairies for days may have been a factor in at least three deaths in Alberta.

In Parliament's question period on Monday, NDP Leader Jack Layton used the reports of three deaths to attack the federal government on its homelessness policy.

"In the prime minister's own home town of Calgary, the officials are telling us that the number of people sleeping in the streets is up by 238 per cent," he said.

"Every Canadian has the right to affordable shelter, but this prime minister, like the previous one, doesn't seem to care."

He accused the government of providing billions of dollars worth of tax cuts to profitable corporations while doing nothing for the homeless.

Human Resources Minister Diane Finley said the government recognizes the homeless situation is a terrible one. "That's why one of our earliest moves was to extend the national homelessness initiative," she said.

"To that we added $37 million that had gone unspent by the previous government."

Layton said contrary to what the minister has just said, "The fact is there has been no extension and those programs are closing right now in communities right across Canada."

Finley said the government has extended all national homelessness initiative programs through to March 2007.

With a reports from CTV's Todd Battis, CTV Vancouver and files from The Canadian Press