Report recommends Toronto create a year-round winter operations unit

Toronto’s response to winter snow clearing does not meet the standard expected, and the city needs to create a year-round winter operations unit.

That is just one of the recommendations being made to improve the City’s winter maintenance operations during major storm events.

A review of the City’s snow removal process was called for after it took a total of 18 days to remove snow across the city following several February storms that buried Torontonians under more than 50 centimetres of snow.

City Manager Paul Johnson says an independent review of the City’s winter maintenance program found the City consistently falls short when it comes to major snowfall events. It identified several challenges within the City’s snow response plan, snow storage and snow removal.

“The failure is our overall plan and structure. We simply can’t remove the snow fast enough,” said Johnson.

“Generally speaking, if events around snow happen and it’s in the 10 to 15 centimetre range, our response is fairly consistent and our response is fairly good in terms of getting the work done. However, we consistently fall short of that mark when we have a major winter event.”

The City is responsible for clearing almost 1,500 kilometres of sidewalks and approximately 30 per cent of snow removal operations while private contractor crews handle the remaining 70 per cent.

Johnson said the creation of a dedicated year-round winter operations unit would result in a stronger overall plan to respond to major snow events and enable officials to treat snow events as the emergencies that they are.

Johnson said a more robust contracting approach is needed when it comes to snow removal, as well as strengthening communication to share and receive information with the public. He’s recommending that the temporary hold on 311 service calls, as snow is falling, be removed so that officials can better respond to issues as they arise.

Johnson says the one thing the report makes clear is that this isn’t about a lack of effort by staff or contractors.

“It was not about laziness or lack of effort, but the reality is we continue to simply talk about the work that was occurring rather than the results we were achieving, and that needs to change as well.”

It’s unclear how much implementing some of the recommendations will add to the City’s budget, but a full update is expected this fall.

The recommendations are set to be debated at the Mayor’s Executive Committee meeting next week.