Mayor John Tory is calling for a review of the city’s winter operations after last week’s winter storm left Toronto residents digging out of piles of snow \u2014 with many saying the city didn’t do enough to help.<\/p>\n
In a letter sent on Tuesday to the head of the city’s transportation services department, and obtained by CBC Toronto,\u00a0Tory said his office alone had “more than 150 calls and emails” from residents who were dissatisfied with the city’s snow removal service.<\/p>\n
“Many of the complaints focused on sidewalk and windrow clearing,” he wrote.<\/p>\n
Councillors, he added, “similarly received a higher than normal volume of complaints.”<\/p>\n
Tory is requesting a review that includes\u00a0a study of the city’s service levels around snow removal and whether they should be\u00a0increased, alongside\u00a0a look at the best practices and technology used in other Canadian cities.<\/p>\n
He also wants the city to explore establishing a “zero tolerance” system for vehicles blocking streetcar routes and the threshold for triggering parking restrictions along key routes so they can be cleared faster.<\/p>\n
“I want to make sure we are providing the absolute best winter operations we can, recognizing that last week’s storm was one of the worst in a decade,” Tory wrote.<\/p>\n
His request follows days of concern\u00a0from residents over snow-covered sidewalks, unplowed streets, and potential flooding.<\/p>\n
Mark Mills, Toronto’s superintendent road operations, previously told CBC Toronto\u00a0the city has\u00a0answered 5,000 complaints to 311 since the\u00a0storm on Jan. 29.<\/p>\n
He also said\u00a0city\u00a0crews were out all weekend uncovering around 1,100 catch basins and\u00a0removing\u00a0snow from about 233 km of roadway.<\/p>\n
But those efforts didn’t reach all corners of the city; in North York, residents near a seniors’ facility on O’Connor Drive told CBC Toronto a stretch of sidewalk leading to the nearby shopping area had not been cleared since the storm, despite multiple calls to city officials.<\/p>\n
In his letter, Tory also said he wants a closer look at the potential\u00a0benefits of “harmonizing the city’s sidewalk clearing.”<\/p>\n
Currently, the city clears sidewalks in certain areas like Scarborough, but not others\u00a0\u2014 including Toronto,\u00a0East York, York, and parts of the Etobicoke and North York districts, where the responsibility falls on residents.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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