Toronto mayor calls for review of snow-removal services, citing residents’ complaints

Thestar.com
Feb. 5, 2019
David Rider

Citing complaints after the recent storm, Mayor John Tory is calling on city staff to review Toronto’s snow-clearing services.

In a Tuesday letter to the head of transportation services, Tory says the review should look at a “zero tolerance” crackdown on snow-squeezed drivers who block streetcar routes, and whether the city should start giving downtowners the same sidewalk-clearing service as provided to suburban residents.

A woman slips and falls on Yonge St. and Shuter St. last week. Mayor John Tory would like a review of snow removal services to consider whether the city should start giving downtown streets the same sidewalk-clearing service as suburban ones get.

Tory thanked Barbara Gray for her staff’s “Herculean effort” clearing more than 20 centimetres of snow that fell on Toronto on Jan. 28 alone but, “I know many residents felt frustrated with the service they received.”

The mayor’s office fielded more than 150 complaints, many focused on the clearing of sidewalks and windrows -- the walls of snow across driveway openings left by plows.

Also, there were more than 100 reports in the past week of motorists on snow-narrowed streets blocking streetcars. “These foolish and inconsiderate decisions by individual drivers delayed hundreds of riders and is simply unacceptable,” Tory wrote in the letter.

The sidewalk cost could be substantial. The city does not plow about 1,100 kilometres of sidewalk out of 7,000 total. City staff have blamed the discrepancy, which has existed since Toronto amalgamated with different service levels in 1988, on difficulty clearing narrower sidewalks.

Senior citizens and disabled people living in the core can apply for city sidewalk clearing.

Downtown residents with driveways also have to clear windrows left by plows, while most suburban Torontonians do not. The mayor’s office said that should be reviewed under service levels.

Complaints after the onslaught included snow-filled bike lanes and getting around the city in general.

Stephen Holyday, councillor for Ward 2 Etobicoke Centre, referenced concerns over the city’s storm response during debate last week over whether to declare Toronto homelessness an emergency.

“I think a lot of people in my constituency would be very upset that attention is not paid to snowplowing, and getting people out and around the city, and put on something else in the context of an emergency,” Holyday said.

Toronto’s “winter operations” budget for 2019 is forecast to be $111.24 million, slightly less than year’s net expenditure. City manager Chris Murray last fall asked all departments, with Tory’s blessing, to seek efficiencies and freeze year-over-year spending.