Toronto City Council approves new snow clearing plan

City Council has approved an updated snow removal plan with the hopes of avoiding last February’s debacle that left residents angry and frustrated.

A series of storms dumped more than 50 cm of snow on Toronto, and days later, sidewalks remained impassable. The removal eventually took a total of 18 days to complete.

A report from city staff later found that almost half of the City’s winter sidewalk clearing equipment was not operational during the snowstorms. Mayor Olivia Chow called for a review of the contracts with private companies hired to do snow removal for Toronto.

A review of snow clearing operations looked at spending more money, but the city instead decided on a centralized command structure that will include various departments such as TTC, police, fire and snow clearing, as