Toronto is still a mess after last week’s snowfall
Where is Doug Ford with his tiny shovel when we need him?
If you’ve been out and about since Toronto received a record-breaking 56 centimetres of snow in some areas, you’ve likely noticed that it’s perilous to get around. Many sidewalks and bike lanes have not been properly cleared, causing safety hazards for pedestrians and cyclists.
Related: Watch a snowplow hit a parked car on a Toronto street
Downtown, the city seems to have put effort into displaying orange signs alerting drivers that they aren’t permitted to park in snow removal zones, but the snow removal itself has resulted in mounds of snow along curbs, forcing people to climb over when trying to access transit or ride-shares, or take a risk by walking in the street.
Toronto lawyer David Shellnutt, who is part of a group of volunteer cyclists who deliver meals to Torontonians facing food insecurity, told CP24 that snow-blocked bike lanes are preventing the group from making deliveries. “We reached out by letter to Mayor Chow last weekend and it’s been crickets,” he said. “We pay for this infrastructure. It ought to be cleared.”
Last November, Chow told CBC that renegotiating the city’s snow removal contract—put in place during John Tory’s tenure, and not expiring until 2029—would cost between $24 million and $130 million if addressed now.
“We’ll add in snow removal so that the contract actually works,” she said, about future renegotiation. “Can you imagine signing a contract and forgetting to add in snow removal?”
Per CBC’s story, “Toronto’s snow-clearing contracts contain no provisions for snow removal, which means that once streets are plowed, contracted companies have no obligation to remove the snow.”
Plenty of other residents are also upset. Torontonian Rob Roy told CTV News that he’s left with no choice but to stay home while the sidewalks are unsafe. Roy lives with partial paralysis, and the snowy sidewalks are difficult to navigate. He has medical appointments to get to, but doesn’t want to risk injury. “The city needs to take into consideration every winter that the seniors and people with disabilities have a right to be out doing their regular, daily routines, but don’t need to be having this difficulty getting around,” he said.
Roy continued, adding, “If I have to walk in a live lane of traffic for the purpose of not falling, then that means they’re not doing the job correctly.”
City Manager Paul Johnson told CTV that between 3,000 and 4,000 311 calls per day have been requests for sidewalk clearing. Johnson said the city has sent additional crews out following the recent storm.
Related: After record snowfall didn’t destroy the Science Centre, some question whether it needed to close
Carly Lewis is a journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Times and the New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, Wired, Interview Magazine, Pitchfork, Elle, and Maclean’s, where she is a contributing editor. Her work has been recognized by the National Magazine Awards and the Digital Publishing Awards. She reports on city life, culture—including what people do online—politics, art and crime. She received the Dave Greber Freelance Writers Award for “The Murder of Ashley Wadsworth,” an investigative feature about a Canadian teenager who was killed by a man she met on social media, published by Maclean’s.
