The past ten days have been a real challenge for all of us. With 53 centimetres of snow falling in back-to-back storms, our streets, sidewalks, and driveways have been buried under winter’s worst. I know many of you have been struggling to get around safely, and I want to acknowledge the frustration this has caused.
Whether it’s the stress of navigating uncleared sidewalks, digging out windrows at the end of your driveway, or trying to drag a stroller down the road to school, this has been an incredibly difficult time for residents across Toronto.
While I wish I could say the City’s response was seamless, the truth is that our winter maintenance system—especially under extreme conditions—continues to have real gaps. I want to take a moment to break down what’s happening, and why today’s approach to winter maintenance feels so different from what some of you remember from our old North York days.
Snow Clearing vs. Snow Removal – What’s the Difference?
Over the past week, I’ve heard a lot of frustration from residents asking, Why is the snow still sitting here? Why hasn’t it been removed?
It’s important to understand that snow clearing and snow removal are two different things:
🛑 Snow Clearing: This is our winter core service that happens in any snow event. Clearing always happens. Our snow clearing contractors are required to plow snow to the sides of the roads and sidewalks. It’s about making roads passable as quickly as possible—but it doesn’t get rid of the snow itself.
🚛 Snow Removal: This is what’s happening now. Snow removal is not an annual service. This happens only after an extreme snow like last weekend or in an accumulated event such as with the extraordinary winter of 2008/2009. Snowbanks and piles that have built up along curbs, sidewalks, and transit stops are physically loaded into dump trucks and hauled away to storage sites.
It is easy for me to remember 2008, the winter we got more snow than even 1999, when Mayor Lastman called in the army. I was budget chief in 2008 and was briefed when we had to entirely spend our plowing reserves. Removal was very much necessary then and Montreal was kind enough to lend Toronto enough dump trucks to get the job done in two weeks. It is just as well that we didn’t rush out and expand our dump truck fleet because we didn’t need to do major snow removal again until 2019.
It is important to remember that as we deploy removal operations that priorities must be set. For instance, downtown streetcar routes must be a top priority for towing of illegally parked cars and removal of snowbanks because the network is essential to hundreds of thousands of commuter trips a day. After that, priority goes to roads impacting the most commuters in all modes of travel. Transportation director Vince Sferrazza did a good job explaining the fundamental difference between clearing and removal in the media earlier this week.
At Monday's press conference Vincent Sferrazza, Toronto's director of transportation operations and maintenance, shared some insight about why removal takes so long. Plowing snow, for example, on a one-kilometre local residential road takes about five to 10 minutes with a vehicle travelling at about 15 kilometres an hour.
"Snow removal on that same kilometre of road can take up to 10 hours," Sferrazza said. This is because the blower — the front-end loader on the snow-removal machine — travels about one kilometre an hour while it blows the snow into a lineup of dump trucks. The trucks then cart the snow to five storage sites and three melter sites in the city before returning. Each removal crew consists of 10 to 15 pieces of equipment and 20 to 30 workers, according to city documents.
The City is now fully engaged in snow removal, which will take a couple weeks, given how intensive the work is for full removal. Crews are prioritizing key locations first, including:
✅ Main roads and sidewalks on transit routes
✅ Hospitals, fire stations, and emergency services
✅ Areas where there is no room to store more snow
✅ School drop-off zones
You’ll start seeing temporary orange signs advising residents to move their vehicles for snow removal. Crews may also knock on doors asking for vehicles to be moved to allow for this work. If you see them in your area, please do what you can to clear the way so the work can happen quickly.
Why Doesn’t This Work Like It Used To?
If you are longtime North Yorker like me, you well remember a time when plowing and windrow clearing happened quickly and seamlessly. That was back when our North York works commissioner invented the windrow truck and our city did this work in-house. Mel Lastman was a strong believer that you could only innovate your own equipment like that if you actually owned and operated your own fleet of snowplows, so his City staff were responsible for clearing our streets.
In those days, when a snowfall hit, plowing, windrow clearing, and sidewalk clearing happened together in North York. The plows and the accompanying windrow clearing truck travelled the streets virtually together. That’s why residents rarely had to wait long or fight with windrows that froze solid overnight.
Today, this work is almost entirely contracted out to private companies. The City no longer owns most of its plows, nor does it directly employ the workers operating them. Instead, we rely on contractors who are paid to meet service standards outlined in their contracts. And as we’ve seen in recent years, when contractors fail to deliver, residents are the ones left dealing with the consequences.
Holding Contractors Accountable
Since the rough start to our new winter maintenance contracts in 2022–2023, the City has been working to tighten oversight and improve service delivery. Some key improvements include:
🌟 GPS Tracking on All Snow Clearing Vehicles – Every piece of contracted equipment now has GPS, allowing City staff to monitor deployment and make sure plows are actually on the roads when they should be.
🌟 PlowTO Map Enhancements – Residents can track plows, salt trucks, and sidewalk plows in real-time. We’re working on adding updates for windrow clearing and snow removal so you can see when service is expected. (Note: we have received reports of some issues with this tool this week and those are being escalated).
🌟 Better 311 Response Times – We’re improving communication on service requests so residents aren’t left wondering when or if help is coming. In an extreme event like last weekend, 311 will let you know through the media and they’ll let councillors’ offices know if the complaint system needs to be put on pause until the most extreme part of the storm has passed and highways are cleared.
🌟 Refined Snow Clearing Routes – Transportation Services continues to fine-tune plowing routes to improve efficiency and reduce delays. My team and I continue to tell the fine-tuning team about chronic trouble spots as we track your calls year after year for patterns.
These are important steps, but I know they haven’t solved everything. I’m continuing to push for more rigorous enforcement of contractor performance and to explore ways to bring more of this work back under direct City control.
Windrow Clearing – A Service Under Review
One of the biggest pain points I’ve heard this winter is windrow clearing.
Many residents—especially seniors and those with mobility challenges—depend on this service to clear the heavy pile of snow left behind by plows at the end of their driveway. But too often, the windrow plow comes late (or not at all), leaving residents stranded or forced to do backbreaking work.
This season, the City is conducting a full review of windrow clearing services. I’ve made it clear that if we’re going to continue to pay contractors to provide this service, they must deliver it to a better standard. One that is predictable.
If you’ve experienced issues with windrow clearing, please report it to 311 and copy my office so we can push for improvements.
What’s Next?
Snow removal operations will continue 24/7for the next few weeks. Meanwhile, I’ll be meeting with Barbara Gray, General Manager of Transportation Services, to discuss contractor accountability and what steps we need to take next to ensure better service.
I know this winter storm has been exhausting, and sometimes downright infuriating. I want you to know that I hear you, and I share your frustration. The way our City handles winter maintenance needs to be better, and I am committed to pushing for change. At the same time, I want to thank you for letting me explain a bit about how it works. I think it helps if we have a common understanding of what to expect after every snowfall and what to expect when those periodic extreme winter storms come along.
As always, my office is here to help. If you have concerns, questions, or suggestions, never hesitate to reach out.
Sometimes Mother Nature takes the win but we will get through this. We get through winter best when we stick together and remember our great Canadian senses of humour.