Mayor orders review of Toronto's 'unacceptable' snow clearing after back-to-back storms

Mayor Olivia Chow says she's ordered a review of Toronto's snow clearing and removal operations, calling the state of the city's roads and sidewalks "unacceptable" more than a week after after the GTA was hit by two winter storms. 

Chow said she's particularly frustrated with how much snow still remains on many of the city's sidewalks after she was "repeatedly told" by city officials that they had been completely cleared. 

"It is obvious that the sidewalk is not 100 per cent plowed. I don't know what percentage is, but claiming that 100 per cent is plowed is blatantly untrue."

Chow said she sent a letter Tuesday to City Manager Paul Johnson and Toronto's auditor general, asking them to immediately review options to improve snow plowing and removal policies and practices. 

The review will include looking at how to optimize the city's existing resources and equipment, and its contracts for winter maintenance work, which could lead to renegotiating or breaking those contracts, Chow said. 

"I want the auditor general to say, 'is [the contract] fair? Can we break it? Should we break it? What is our penalty?'" Chow said during an interview with CBC Radio's Metro Morning Wednesday.

Though she said the amount of snow that fell was exceptional — more than 50 centimetres fell starting Feb. 12 — Chow said the city's snow removal process has been a "failure." 

"I just keep thinking about someone like my late mother who was in a wheelchair. How do you get around?" she said. 

Chow said the issue will be discussed by her executive committee at their next meeting. 

Barbara Gray, the city's general manager of transportation services, said Tuesday she's aware of the mayor's request. Gray said her department is committed to working on improving winter maintenance delivery in the future. 

"There's an expectation for this work to be done as soon as possible and we couldn't agree more," Gray said at an update on the city's snow removal operations Tuesday afternoon. 

On the issue of sidewalk clearing, Gray maintained that city staff and contracted crews have plowed every sidewalk in the city at least once since the beginning of the storm, but said that her department will be "going back to double check our records on that."

WATCH | Toronto snow clearing not good enough, mayor says:

‘It’s a failure’: Chow blasts Toronto’s snow-clearing efforts

4 hours ago

Duration 9:49

A day after ordering a review of the city’s snow removal operations, Mayor Olivia Chow spoke to Metro Morning’s David Common about her frustrations with the state of Toronto’s sidewalks in the wake of two major storms.

She said there may be a discrepancy between whether sidewalks have been "plowed" or cleared of snow. 

"Plowing the sidewalks doesn't necessarily leave them clear, and so many people, we know their experience is that the sidewalks have not been cleared. They have been plowed, and I think there is that discrepancy," she said.

"A lot times people will be frustrated and I can completely understand that. Certainly our teams are not resourced enough to be able to get back to everything as quickly as we would want to, but I feel like that's where perhaps the discrepancy is."

Contract concerns 

The city's current snow removal contracts were approved in 2021 in a deal that was pushed through quickly by council after a staff reported suggested there would be a safety risk for citizens if it wasn't approved immediately. 

CBC Toronto began reporting on issues with the snow clearing service the companies provided the following winter, when the city spent $26.4 million more than planned on winter maintenance and Toronto's snow-clearing operations were plagued by equipment and personnel shortages.

Scarborough Coun. Paul Ainslie said when the contracts were being considered, he raised concerns that they would lead to "a raft of issues" with snow clearing and removal in the city. 

"And every winter I go out ... and it's not getting any better," he said. 

"Things have to change. People expect ... value for their money. They want their tax dollars to work."

Beaches–East York Coun. Brad Bradford, who spoke in favour of the contracts when they were awarded, argued the issue is not with the contracts but the lack of accountability for city staff and the contracted crews. He blamed Chow for that. 

"The actual problem is the performance, and that we are not holding the contractors and city staff to account."

The Toronto Transit Commission was also asked to look at its response to extreme weather events at a TTC board meeting Monday. 

The motion from TTC Chair Coun. Jamaal Myers and Coun. Josh Matlow asked TTC staff to look into some of the issues that have plagued the transit system since storms rolled into the city earlier this month, including large banks of snow piling up around transit stops, issues with the above-grade portions of Line 1 and 2, and parked cars blocking streetcars.