Blocked sidewalks, transit stops persist nearly a week after Toronto hit with heavy snow

It's been nearly a week since Toronto was hammered by the second of back-to-back snowstorms, but slow snow-clearing has left pedestrians and commuters frustrated.

Up to 23 centimetres fell on parts of the city last weekend, following a dump of up to 20 centimetres only a few days prior. 

Crews have been working around the clock this week to plow sidewalks and streets, and remove remaining snowpiles, but some say it's taking too long.

Sho Kahn has a barber shop on College Street. He says walk-ins have been down this week because of the conditions.

"People are unable to walk and it slows the business down," Khan said Friday. He said snow was also blocking a nearby TTC stop and preventing people from parking on the street all week.

That changed Friday.

"Finally, we see the plows out," Khan said. "It's beautiful."

Asked Friday to give a grade on how well crews are clearing snow around the city, Mayor Olivia Chow said it's still too early.

"You don't give a report card until the end of the term," she told reporters. "They're working on it."

The city said earlier this week it could take three weeks to remove the snow that's plowed from roads and sidewalks to designated sites around the city. As of Friday morning, the city says it's removed over 70,000 tonnes of snow from over 100 kilometres of roads and 18 kilometres of sidewalks. 

But many sidewalks are still being cleared and cold temperatures are keeping remaining snow banks intact.

'Stumbling over piles of snow'

That's taking away parking spaces, narrowing sidewalks and making it hard to access transit — even where crews have done some work.

August Puranauth, an organizer with transit advocacy group TTC Riders, says even where roads and sidewalks have been cleared, large snowbanks have been left on curbs, blocking access to transit.

"I've spoken to riders who are going to medical appointments today, and they're stumbling over piles of snow just to get on the bus to get there," they said. "It's unacceptable that several, several days after a snowstorm, bus stops and streetcar stops and wheel trans stops are still not clear."

TTC Riders is supporting a motion to the TTC board to prioritize snow-clearing for streetcar, wheel trans and bus stops, Puranauth says. 

"We want to see the city of Toronto implement very clear service standards for snow removal with clear timelines to remove snow," they said. "People are waiting in the street for their bus. It's not safe at all. It's risking a lot of injury for many people." 

The city says it prioritizes snow removal on main streets with transit routes to ensure safety and accessibility. The city is also accepting service requests for snow clearing — which includes plowing and salting — of public roads and sidewalks where snow is blocking sightlines or causing safety concerns.

In 2021, the city contracted out snow removal at a cost of roughly $1.5 billion. The controversial decision has come with complaints in the past that the city has struggled to ensure contractors deliver on service.

But Zac Spicer, a municipal affairs professor at York University, says contracting has its advantages.

"When you bring a service like this in-house, you risk having a lot of folks who are kind of sitting around on call waiting for snow that just doesn't come," he said. "When you have a private contract, you're transferring some of the risk and some of the cost onto a private vendor."