Other GTA cities remove snow piled in every driveway by plows. Could Toronto do the same across the city?

Thespec.com
Jan. 25, 2022
Maria Iqbal

A viral TikTok video about the city of Vaughan clearing snow at the end of residents’ driveways has become the envy of many weary Toronto shovellers in a losing battle with a city plow.

Scarborough senior Joe Trentadue said he had to go out three times on Wednesday to clear the snow each time a plow came by.

“We went out and cleared it, and within an hour, the snow plow came by again,” he said.

As snow gets piled as high as residents’ cars in many areas of Toronto, cities such as Vaughan and Richmond Hill clean up the heaps of snow, called windrows, left by snow plows at the ends of all residential driveways.

Could Toronto do the same, especially given how tough it is to get around the city at the best of times?

It turns out that some lucky Toronto residents do get those mounds cleared by the city.

“Transportation Services clears driveway windrows, where mechanically possible, for all residential single-family properties in the city and across all road classifications,” said an email statement from spokesperson Mike Hajmasy.

“Mechanically possible” means clearing equipment must safely and “effectively” navigate the relevant roadways, Hajmasy added.

Areas that receive the service are mostly in Etobicoke, North York and Scarborough, but exclude some parts, including Trentadue’s area, according to the city. Parts of Toronto and East York are also included, but roads, especially downtown, which are too narrow or don’t have enough space to store snow, are not.

While University-Rosedale Coun. Mike Layton said a more equitable windrow clearing service in the city could be useful, it’s not a priority given the current budget.

“It would be several billion dollars in clearing windrows through neighbourhoods that don’t have a lot of driveways,” he said.

The city couldn’t provide the specific cost of windrow clearing, which is part of the snow plowing budget.

Other cities have also considered offering the service.

Mississauga considered windrow clearing as part of its snow removal services, but didn’t include it due to the “significant cost,” said Mickey Frost, Mississauga’s director of works operations and maintenance, at a news conference Thursday.

In March 2019, Richmond Hill council voted to clear windrows on all residential driveways, among other service improvements, at a cost of $4.38 million. Previously, the municipality offered windrow clearing only for seniors and people with disabilities, said spokesperson Ash O’Malley.

In Vaughan’s case, the TikTok poster claims that a lawsuit led to the service being offered in Vaughan. There was a lawsuit against the city at the turn of the millennium where a court ruled that homeowners are not liable if a person is injured on a sidewalk due to snow. The city of Vaughan declined to comment on whether the lawsuit influenced the decision.

Vaughan Coun. Marilyn Iafrate said the service was previously offered to seniors and people with disabilities, but was being taken advantage of by residents who could shovel the snow themselves, until eventually, the city expanded it to everyone.

Regardless, expanding the service in Toronto would cost more than just tax dollars.

“We have almost nonexistent street parking,” said Iafrate. “These machines are not so small that they can just swivel around a vehicle.”

Vaughan also has space on residents’ front lawns and in the centre of cul-de-sacs where the machines can dump the snow.

“People are very happy with that service,” Iafrate said. “Once you’ve given that, you can never take it away.”