Toronto needs to do better on snow clearing, city manager says after review finds 'significant' gaps

Muriel Draaisma · CBC News

· Posted: Jul 11, 2025 9:24 PM EDT | Last Updated: July 12

Toronto indispensable bash amended erstwhile it comes to clearing snow, a elder metropolis authoritative says, aft a reappraisal by an autarkic advisor recovered "significant shortcomings" successful the city's effect to wintertime storms in February.

A bid of storms near astir 58 centimetres of snowfall connected the metropolis successful little than 9 days.

The review, released Friday and prepared by Municipal VU Consulting Inc., calls for a year-round wintertime operations unit, a elaborate large snowfall lawsuit effect plan, standalone snowfall removal contracts, prime monitoring and reporting tools, betterment successful tempest communications and standby towing contracts that could beryllium activated during utmost events.

City manager Paul Johnson told reporters astatine metropolis hallway connected Friday that Toronto's response to the February snowfall did not conscionable the modular expected by the metropolis and its residents. He said the metropolis "gets the enactment done" erstwhile astir 10 to 15 centimetres of snowfall falls, but it consistently falls abbreviated erstwhile faced with a large snowfall event.

"We request a stronger program wide to respond to large snowfall events. While we person a model of a plan, we bash not person the operationalization efforts beneath that to guarantee that we tin successful existent clip respond to the things that hap erstwhile we person large snowfall events," helium said.

"We besides don't truly dainty it sometimes similar it is the exigency that it is."

According to the review, aft 3 storms successful February, galore sidewalks were intolerable to navigate for days and residential roads were uncleared for extended periods. The metropolis had snowfall clearing contracts that were constricted successful scope, nationalist messaging was not accordant and determination were delays successful responses to 311 calls. On apical of that, the metropolis did not person surge capableness successful staffing and equipment.

"The February 2025 wintertime tempest effect revealed that the City's wintertime attraction system, portion fundamentally dependable for regular snowfall, faces systemic gaps that bounds its effectiveness erstwhile large snowstorm events hit," the study says.

"These halfway issues are interconnected, cutting crossed policy, operations, contracts, technology, and communication, and should beryllium addressed arsenic a full to physique a much resilient, agile, accountable program."

These "systemic gaps" include:

• Limited places to store snow.
• A large snowfall effect program that lacked "detailed operational guidance" to woody with a "severe multi-day, multi-storm scenario."
• Reporting tools that are ineffective astatine tracking existent snowfall clearing results.
• Problems successful the plan of its contracts for snowfall removal.
• Snow removal itself is not intelligibly defined oregon resourced by the city.
• City communications that did not lucifer the world connected the crushed of "prolonged delays, ample piles and blocked pedestrian routes."

Johnson said helium volition marque recommendations to metropolis council's enforcement committee adjacent week astir ways to amended snowfall clearing. One proposal is that the metropolis acceptable up a dedicated year-round wintertime operations unit.

"It does not beryllium present astatine the City of Toronto astatine the infinitesimal and it volition moving forward," helium said.

According to the review, the portion could beryllium created done restructuring, not done caller jobs. The unit would coordinate "winter readiness," including program development, mapping, training, declaration oversight, and drills.

Johnson said contracts needs to beryllium strengthened arsenic well.

"Toronto needs to region snowfall successful large snowfall events and yet we don't person a truly robust contracting attack for the removal of snow. We bash not person standalone contracts arsenic different cities bash for snowfall removal itself," helium added.

"We deficiency the surge capableness done instrumentality and done people, whether its our ain staff, oregon contractors to instrumentality connected much enactment successful those large snowfall events, truthful that we tin wide snowfall arsenic good arsenic region snow."