Toronto to review snowstorm response after sidewalk plow breakdowns, blizzard of 311 calls
City manager to be asked to look at gap between reports and reality of response
Toronto city council will review its response to major snowstorms this year after the mayor called snow clearing and removal efforts "a failure."
Council decided to ask city manager Paul Johnson to review the response to winter maintenance operations for possible improvements to the way the city manages its agreements with private contractors.
According to the motion, council will ask the city manager "to investigate the gap between City reports that 100 per cent of sidewalks were cleared of snow at least once and the reality of residents who can see no plow had visited a given stretch of sidewalk."
The city manager will be asked to determine whether the private winter maintenance contractors have upheld their obligations under their contracts, and if not, take steps to hold them accountable and recover public funds if need be.
According to the motion, the city manager will evaluate all options to improve winter maintenance work.
That evaluation includes renegotiating or breaking existing contracts, improving maintenance of the city-owned fleet of winter equipment and buying improved winter equipment that can handle heavier snow falls. It also includes developing contingency plans to redeploy more city staff to do the work when a snow condition is declared, and creating a policy to determine when snow removal should be undertaken.
As well, council decided it will ask the auditor general to do a deeper review of the 2021 procurement process that saw two companies and their joint venture win the contract to clear snow in almost all of Toronto.
What we've learned about the storm response
The city manager answered a series of questions about snow-clearing just before the meeting, giving glimpses into the storm response. Here's what jumps out from the document.
The city's sidewalk plows frequently broke down. The city started clearing downtown sidewalks in 2021-2022, and owns 59 mini plows to do the work — though just over half made it out into the storm because the others were in for repairs.
When the storm hit on Feb. 8, 34 plows were sent out. Four days later, 36 plows went out as the snow pelted down again. But on Feb. 15, that number dropped to 26, meaning less than half of the city's fleet was operational.
Johnson said 60 per cent of the vehicles that were out of service had vehicle issues, while 40 per cent had broken down due to operational issues like collisions or "overloading."
Contractors handle the vast majority of sidewalk plowing. For clarity, because it's often hard to decipher who is responsible for what in this snow-clearing debate, contractors handle the majority of sidewalk clearing.
Toronto has some 7,900 kilometres of sidewalk. City crews handle 1,461 kilometres of that, per Johnson's report.
Torontonians filed a lot of complaints. There were 25,318 calls for service to the city's 311 line (although Johnson said about 3,000 were the result of an inaccurate media report that suggested the city could plow private driveways.)
However, that number would be higher had the city not implemented three "blackout periods" for 311 calls as the back-to-back-to-back storms hit.
It's unclear how much the city will pay for snow removal. Snow removal (think: snow being loaded into dump trucks and driven out of your neighbourhood) is different than snow-clearing, and only happens when we get more than 25 centimetres of snow that isn't expected to melt.
During the major storm in 2022, snow removal cost the city $17 million. Johnson said this year's price won't be made public until July.
What councillors have said about the response
Coun. Frances Nunizata asked city staff why staff why bike lanes were cleared when sidewalks weren't. "We do both," Transportation Services head Barbara Gray said.
"No you don't," Nunziata replied, before explaining she and many other Torontonians had the experience of having to walk in a cleared bike lane while the sidewalk was left covered in snow.
Coun. Brad Bradford said there's been a lot of blame on city contractors and asked how much is actually done by in-house staff. Vincent Sferrazza, who oversees winter operations, said about 30 per cent of the work is done by city workers.
Bradford asked if the contracts with fewer companies has improved accountability. Gray said it has.
Three councillors spoke with reporters ahead of the afternoon debate. All support a deeper review of how Toronto handles snow-clearing:
Coun. Paula Fletcher said she supports another auditor general review of the contract, but declined to say if she supports exiting the deal. "We will have to see what our options are," she told reporters.
Fletcher said she'll bring forward documents that show sidewalks across the city — from her east-end riding to the inner suburbs — weren't being cleared, even when city officials said they had been.
Coun. Josh Matlow had a blunt answer when asked if Toronto's snow-clearing plans are working.
"No," he said.
Matlow said throughout the storm he watched as city officials said "we're doing a great job" when "in real life" people with disabilities were finding themselves stuck in their homes.
"The city failed. We need to say that."
Coun. Alejanda Bravo's Davenport riding filed the most 311 calls of any ward, at 2,035. She said she'll support Chow's motion because the city needs to figure out what went wrong and also needs clearer standards so residents know what kind of service they can expect when a storm hits.
"The communication gap around the snow was really, really difficult," she said.
Bravo said she was out trying to verify what work had actually been done in her ward and saw sidewalks near schools, parks and child care centres weren't cleared.
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