Why isn’t Toronto paying people to shovel?
New York is offering residents $30 an hour to clear snow. Some Torontonians want our city to do the same
Toronto may have had the biggest single-day snowfall on record this winter, but that’s hardly an excuse for the veritable icebergs that are still blocking parking and pedestrian paths across the city a month later.
Related: Yesterday’s snowfall was the biggest single-day snowstorm in Toronto history
Now, New York’s snow-removal plan is adding (road) salt to the wound of our troubled drift-clearing. After another big blizzard last weekend, Mayor Zohran Mamdani put out a call for emergency snow shovellers to help dig the city out.
Apparently, the Big Apple has hired emergency brigades of citizen shovellers since the 1800s, who hit the streets in times of need. The gig usually pays $19 (US) an hour on a per-day basis, but the city raised the hourly rate to $30 in preparation for the storm. The gambit worked: over 1,400 people signed up for shovelling duty, and the streets are looking gloriously snow-free just days after Manhattan was hit with 55 centimetres.
Related: The city gave out more than $2 million in snow route parking tickets after January’s major storm
The idea makes a lot of sense—and some are wondering why Toronto doesn’t have a similar plan. Instagram user @shaelesstv posted a video asking Mayor Olivia Chow when Torontonians will get to launch their own city-funded shovelling side hustles. It seems like a no-brainer. The real question is whether it will be BYOS (bring your own shovel).
Charlie Wagner-Chazalon is Toronto Life’s assistant editor. He has written for Toronto Life and Maclean’s, where he was the assistant digital editor. Originally from Muskoka, he now lives and works in Toronto.
