Plowing complaints in Toronto pile up as the snow keeps coming

Thestar.com
February 20, 2019
Jack Lakey

As the snow gets deeper, some residents are giving the city a failing grade on the work of its plowing contractors to push it out of the way.

With so much snow over the past few weeks -- as much as we’ve seen in such a short a period for many years -- it’s been a challenge for the city’s hired plows to keep up with it.

The sidewalk on the south side of Donmac Dr. ends at a mountain of snow at Charnwood Rd., which appears to have been pushed into a pile by a sidewalk plow.

The evidence is not just on the street but in emails we’ve been getting from readers, to draw our attention to examples where the plow jockeys didn’t do the job they’re supposed to.

We’ve gotten many in recent days, including one Thursday from a reader named John, who said sidewalks at Donmac Dr. and Charnwood Rd., near Leslie St. and York Mills Rd., are “always missed for cleanup of snow.

“The northwest corner I use for afternoon school bus drop of my sons. They never clean up the sidewalk. This corner is always blocked,” after it snows, he said, adding that he previously called 311, but it didn’t help.

We went there and found a small mountain of snow near the point where the sidewalk meets the street, obviously piled up by a sidewalk plow, amounting to a barrier between the sidewalk and the road.

Cathy Smith sent us frustrated notes about a lack of plowing on Badgerow Ave., near Gerrard St. and Carlaw Ave., after the last big dump at the start of February, saying the street was forgotten.

“We talked to 311 on both Saturday and Sunday. The person said it would be done overnight. It has not been done as of 7 p.m. Sunday,” she said, adding that she had called the city for several days, “and I do admit that I raised my voice.

“The cynic in me is thinking that the city is gambling that as temperatures get milder the snow will melt and problems solved.”

STATUS: Norberto Santos, manager of North York road operations, sent us a note saying he’d send a plow back to have another run at the sidewalk on Donmac, adding, “we’ll be talking to our plow operators” about not blocking sidewalks. We’d earlier sent a note to road superintendent Mark Mills about the need for a plow on Badgerow, which he promptly dispatched. But as Smith predicted, the snow was in full melt mode by the time it got there, leaving the plow with not much snow to clear.