“It’s like hiring an army of sloths”: Councillor Josh Matlow on the city’s excruciatingly slow snow removal

Over six blizzardy days, Toronto was buried in more than a foot of snow, which quickly transformed from soft blanket to slushy, treacherous mess. Countless streetcars were blocked by parked cars jutting out of snowbanks, residents’ brave shovelling efforts were cancelled out by the capricious whims of city plows and life in general got a bit more difficult. Adding to the chorus of snow-sick Torontonians is Councillor Josh Matlow, who has long called for the city to step up its snow-removal game—and is laying blame on the curious contract it signed with several private plowing purveyors two years back. We caught up with Matlow to discuss the logistics of digging out a city, the problems with privatization and what his ideal shovelling system would look like.

How has the snow clean-up affected your life? Have you been personally victimized by a snow plow? Look, my wife and I make no complaint about shovelling the sidewalk in front of our house. But, the other day, we and our neighbours put in all the work to clear it only to have a snow plow shove a frozen mound of ice onto our nice clear path. It’s an iceberg now. I’ll need a chisel to clear it. What’s worse are the stories I’ve heard from constituents. I’ve spoken to people with disabilities who have been trapped at home for the past three weeks as well as a parent pushing a stroller who had to walk into the middle of a live lane of traffic because the sidewalk wasn’t clear.

Is this really the best the city can do? No, it’s not. In 2020, I convinced then-mayor John Tory to expand sidewalk snow clearing to areas of the city that weren’t covered, like the core and downtown. But I wasn’t able to convince him to invest enough money into extreme weather responses. The city came out with these bus shelter ads in the fall boasting about how ready it was to deal with the winter. And yet, when it was tested with several snow storms, there were loads of problems.

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That was Tory, but what has current mayor Olivia Chow been doing about this? She seemed confident enough in the deal to brag about it in ads. To be fair to her, she wasn’t the mayor when the contract was approved. Most politicians believe part of their role is to tell everyone what a great job they’re doing. But people see through that. They know whether they’re seeing a good job being done. Right now, all of the city’s press conferences are like, “Everything’s great—the vehicles are rolling.” It’s far better to acknowledge where things are screwed up, then dedicate yourself to making them better. When I was a kid, my dad would say, “People don’t fix things until they admit they’re broken.” That’s what I want Toronto to do.

If we’re talking about re-negotiating the contract now, couldn’t Mayor Chow have done that last summer? Fair point. Staff have told me they’ll be bringing a report on the city’s winter services this July for council to discuss. I’ll be speaking with the mayor about how important it is to get real about the problems with the contract and provide better services. The test will be what action she takes.

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There have been countless incidents of whole streetcars—sometimes several in a row—being blocked by a single parked car jutting out into the tracks, itself blocked by a snowbank. The fine for that is a pitiful $200. Time for a crackdown? I’m bringing a motion to the next TTC board to increase the fine for that. It’s been a huge problem. A fine of $200 is not sending the right message. Most people care about others, but some folks are selfish. If they know they’ll be hit in the wallet, they’ll reconsider.

What exactly could the city be doing better? I’m not convinced that the city’s snow-clearing contractors are effectively digging out crosswalks or TTC bus and streetcar stops, where—if the vehicle ever does arrive—it’s difficult if not impossible to get over the mountain of snow in front of the door. That’s not reasonable! There also wasn’t enough preparation to deal with the open-cut areas of the subway, which made chaos of the whole system. Both the city and the TTC could do better.

On the other hand, surely a bit of inconvenience is to be expected after a snowstorm, no? No one can expect the snow to be cleared an hour after it lands. But cities like Montreal are able to mostly dig themselves out in three days. We take three weeks or more! Having days and weeks go by where most residents are unable to get around safely just isn’t good enough in a city like ours. This isn’t just about snow—it’s about people and their ability to get to work or doctor’s appointments.

You were one of the few councillors to vote against our current snow-clearing contract when it was signed under Tory in 2023. Did you know something we didn’t? That contract was worth roughly $1.5 billion, and it obligated several different contractors to provide snow plowing, de-icing and snow-removal services. Transportation services staff promised us that the system would run well, yet they brought the contract to council very hastily. They said, “You have to sign this,” but they didn’t give us enough time to examine it. I’m the kind of person who likes to read contracts before I sign them—that’s my job. Unfortunately, the mayor and most of council supported it anyway, and they shouldn’t have.

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As part of that new contract, the city cut the penalties snow-clearing contractors would face if they failed to do their jobs fast enough—out of fear that the existing fines would bankrupt them. Do you think that leniency is contributing to what we’re seeing now? This is something that inevitably happens when you privatize core services. Toronto has become entirely reliant on contractors, which has changed the power dynamic between the city and its contractors. Any time a mistake is made, the city needs to go into costly litigation to address it—litigation where the contractor has the power because they know they’re one of a few companies that can get the job done. They’re able to secure deals that are good for them but awful for the public.

How long are we locked into this particular contract? It runs until 2029, and there’s an option to extend it for another three years. It’s worth bringing the contractors to the table before then, though. We can’t just throw up our hands. We have a problem, and it needs to be fixed. This can’t happen again.

What’s your ideal city-wide industrial snow-clearing armada? Montreal has far better resources for winter weather. Their plows go up and down the street, and they have trucks behind them collecting the snow that go and dump it elsewhere, an operation that takes some 3,000 people and 2,500 vehicles. Mind you, we have some 1,400 vehicles, 140 of which are dump trucks, doing the same thing. But they only go at one kilometre per hour, and we have 5,600 kilometres of streets. It’s like hiring an army of sloths. It doesn’t cut it. Residents will find that the city hasn’t cleared the sidewalks, so they’ll do it themselves, shovelling the snow onto the street. Lo and behold, the plow will come along and shove it all right back onto the sidewalk in an iceberg. That’s not good enough!

I was joking with someone the other day that Toronto and Montreal may have a long rivalry in hockey, but we have a lot to learn from them when it comes to ice on the roads. They understand far better than we do that they’re a Canadian city with Canadian winters.

Since at least 2011, the city has been slowly privatizing more and more of its snow-clearing services, and now here we are. Is privatizing essential public services always a mistake? I’ve never looked at the debate over contracting out services through an ideological lens. I’ve even supported doing so at times. But, over the years, one after the other, many of these privatized city services have not delivered on what they promised. Politicians like to say that privatization makes things more reliable and cost-effective. Yet look at the Astral Media contract the city signed for its street furniture, like garbage cans and ad posts. They’re cheap, plastic things that break all the time; Astral has done a poor job of servicing them; and they look like crap. It’s time we consider making services like these public again.

How would that improve the situation? The city could be far more responsive to mistakes if it had control over the service in question. It’s like being a homeowner. If I know how to fix things when they break, I don’t have to always call a repair person. That gives me control over when and how the work gets done, plus it’s cheaper and I’m not at the behest of someone who may be ripping me off.

We’re already paying $1.5 billion for what we have. How much more would a better system cost us, especially if it’s for a service that we need only a few times a year? That depends on how you model it. If we only need a contractor’s services occasionally, that’s something that can be written in. If we have a winter like last year’s, which was more like Vancouver weather, we shouldn’t have to pay so much for snow removal. It should be on a scale. But to simply say “Let’s pay $1.5 billion and wait three weeks” isn’t good enough. At this rate, the snow will melt before they get around to clearing it.

Could a new system mean higher taxes? There can be an ideological battle whenever we talk about tax rates. But, if you take a step back from that, it’s less important to keep taxes from increasing than it is to invest in high-quality services. I’m not opposed to paying a little more to get better things, and I believe most people would agree. I know that Toronto can do better because other cities do better. Let’s not settle for mediocrity to save a few bucks. Let’s be the best.

We’re on a warming planet, and Toronto’s snowstorm days may be numbered. Is it worth investing in a big plowing fleet if snowy winters become a thing of the past? If Toronto becomes full of palm trees and Club Meds, of course not! But there’s a reason scientists now call it climate change and not global warming: it’s not so simple. In addition to warming, it will mean more dramatic weather and extreme storms. We’re still in Canada, and we’re still going to have winters. If the day comes when it no longer snows in Toronto, we’ll make different arrangements.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity