Toronto will be better prepared for snowstorms this winter due to bylaw changes, city says

The city says it will be better able to respond to major snow events during the upcoming winter season as a result of changes that have been made to its extreme snow response plan.

Toronto’s winter maintenance plans were outlined at a news conference on Wednesday morning and staff said that recent changes to some of the city’s bylaws will make it easier for crews to remove snow across the city.

As part of the winter maintenance budget, which if approved will surpass $160 million next year, the city clears snow and ice from 14,700 kilometres of roads and on-street bike lanes, 7,900 kilometres of sidewalk, and 486 kilometres of cycling infrastructure.

Vincent Sferrazza, the director of operations and maintenance for Toronto’s transportation services, said while last year’s winter was particularly mild, the city is prepared for any and all possibilities, including a repeat of the massive snowstorm in January 2022 that brought services in Toronto to a screeching halt for several days.

He said some bylaws have been amended to allow the city to take action before the snow begins to fall.

“In the past, the city was only able to declare a major winter event when a certain amount of snow had accumulated, 5 to 10 centimetres, and that was usually during the event. Now the bylaw allows us to declare a major event days before so that residents can get prepared,” he told reporters Wednesday.

“There are snow routes across the city where parking is prohibited when a major snow event is declared and waiting until after the snow came down did not serve the general residents well nor did it help us in terms of removing the snow. We can now declare in advance, get the message out, and that will help everybody in terms of moving vehicles on snow routes.”

Bylaw changes now mean the general manager of transportation services also has the authority to shut down a road for approximately 24 hours to allow crews to haul out mounds of snow.

“There were some situations… where the snow was so heavy in certain pockets that it was difficult for us to remove the snow as traffic was moving, still navigating throughout that road,” he said, noting that this will now prevent traffic from getting in the way of plows.

The city is also in the process of revising its snow removal plans to align with “principles of equity, mobility, access, safety, and operational efficiencies.”

“We know that while we may be having fewer events, we are having wilder, wetter weather and those snowfalls that are happening tend to be bigger,” Deputy Mayor Jennifer McKelvie said at the news conference, which was held at the Leslie Street winter maintenance depot.

“In the past we’ve had difficulties, for example, during very large snowfalls for residents to call 311. We’ve worked through improvements around that to improve response. We’re also making it easier to remove snow off of streets and truck it out. All of that is in the extreme snow response plans that will be rolled out this year.”