Toronto committee says no to downtown sidewalk snow clearing in face of COVID-19

Thestar.com
Nov. 6, 2020
David Nickle

Toronto won’t look at further expanding residential sidewalk snow clearing in older neighbourhoods near the city core in 2020/21, if council goes along with recommendations from the city’s infrastructure and environment committee.

The committee Thursday did not agree to a proposal by councillors Josh Matlow and Mike Layton to come up with a way to clear snow from about 1,000 kilometres of residential sidewalks in Old Toronto, parts of East York and York. Currently property owners there must clear adjacent sidewalks.

In other parts of the city, sidewalk snow clearing is a service provided by the city. And the committee heard from residents arguing that it was time to fairly distribute that service to downtown neighbourhoods -- particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“COVID-19 is forcing us to be outdoors,” said John Plumadore, a director of the Deer Park Residents Group.

“The City of Toronto must prepare this winter season for the public use of sidewalks. Downtown and midtown has low car accessibility but high rates of pedestrian use. Keeping sidewalks accessible for seniors and people with mobility issues is imperative.”

Plumadore and others noted that many downtown streets where homeowners bear the responsibility for sidewalk clearing are simply not consistently cleared.

“There are real consequences that we face,” said Robert Tambula, speaking on behalf of the Harbord Village Residents Association.

“We risk life and limb (on un-cleared sidewalks). Others take alternative risks and walk on the road. Some sadly just retreat and return home, or remain housebound. And it goes without saying that social distancing on a 1.6-metre-wide sidewalk is already a problem, let alone walking when it’s obstructed by snow.”

The recommendation would have accelerated a pilot program that the city’s transportation department began in early 2020, to purchase a total of nine smaller-scaled snow removal machines to start clearing some sidewalks in the downtown core.

Toronto’s Director of Transportation Barbara Gray said that program didn’t get a fair trial in 2020, as there were too few heavy snowfalls by the time the machines were operational.

The plan, she said, is to carry the program forward in 2020/21, clearing approximately 230 km of sidewalks and also surveying the entire 1,000 km of residential streets to see where there is sufficient room on the generally narrow sidewalks to provide the service.

“It’s very difficult to clear in some locations because of the encroachments,” said Gray. “There are things like retaining walls, hydro poles -- and some of the sidewalks are quite narrow. Another issue is on-street parking.”

The committee voted against moving forward with full-scale snow clearing, and also a motion from Layton to get an early budget impact assessment by Dec. 1.

The committee did support creating a strategy for enhanced enforcement of the existing bylaw.

According to Gray, the city laid just 44 charges last winter for people reported for not clearing their sidewalk, following 624 inspections that stemmed from 3,000 complaints.