Toronto received over 25,000 calls for service after three snowstorms in February dropped more than 50 centimetres of snow on the city in the span of a week.
The revelation was included in a report by City Manager Paul Johnson in response to an administrative inquiry submitted by Coun. Jennifer McKelvie about last month’s snowfall and the subsequent clearing efforts.
The report shows that there were 25,318 calls made to 311 in relation to requests for snow clearing between Feb. 8, the date of the first of the three snowfalls, and Mar. 13. In a breakdown by ward of where in the city the calls were made, most originated in Davenport with 2,035, followed by Beaches-East York with 1,948, and Toronto Danforth with 1,760.
Most of the 311 requests -- 10,186 -- were made in relation to sidewalk snow clearing.
The information will be presented to city council on Wednesday as part of two separate motions related to the snowstorms in February. The second motion was from Mayor Olivia Chow, who requested an official review of the city’s winter maintenance program amid the weeks-long cleanup.
The city declared a “major snowstorm condition” on Feb. 12, when the city saw 21 centimetres of snow drop on the downtown core over the course of a few hours. It was the largest single snowfall recorded in Toronto since 2022.
The move allowed the city to prohibit parking on roads designated as snow routes to make way for plows. However, officials said a week later that it expected snow removal to take up to three weeks.
Chow criticized the ensuing snow clearing efforts, calling them “unacceptable,” and took particular issue with reports from city crews that “100 per cent” of the city’s sidewalks had been cleared when they were still caked in snow.
Among a list of recommendations, Chow has asked Johnson to conduct a “full review” of the city’s winter maintenance operations to determine whether private winter maintenance companies upheld their commitments. She also instructed him to evaluate “all options” to improve Toronto’s snow clearing strategy, including “renegotiating or breaking existing contracts,” with those contractors.
Only 35 of the city’s 59 sidewalk plows available during cleanup: report
According to the report, only about 35 of the city’s own 59 sidewalk snowplows were available during the February snowstorms due to “running repairs.”
Of the machines that were out of commission during the cleanup, the report noted that 60 per cent experienced issues with their hydraulics, tires, and attachments while 40 per cent were overloaded, involved in a collision, or had a broken component.
“These challenges were consistent with the results of the sidewalk plow pilot reported in 2021 with snow accumulation over 15 cm,” the report noted, referring to the project which saw narrower plows deployed to parts of the city, including East York, that have “unique sidewalk specifications.”
Of all the sidewalks in the city cleared by in-house staff, 1,350 kilometres are plowed mechanically, and 111 kilometres are plowed manually.
The report said that 70 per cent of snow clearing work in Toronto is performed by contractors and 30 per cent is done by city staff.
The city has been subject to a number of audits over its snow maintenance program in recent years and staff had promised to do better this winter since the snowstorm in 2022.
Since then, the report said, the city has made a number of changes to its snow-clearing operations, including, among other things, awarding service contracts on a performance-based model and amending bylaws to allow for the proactive declaration of a major snowstorm condition to optimize snow clearing work.
