Mayor Olivia Chow calls for full review of city’s ‘slow’ response to winter storms

Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow discusses snow removal operations across the city.

Mayor Olivia Chow is calling on the city manager to conduct a full review of Toronto’s winter maintenance operations in the wake of what she says was a “slow” response to back-to-back snowstorms earlier this month.

Toronto saw more than 50 centimetres of snow in the span of days this February, seeing more snow in that time than what it saw all season last year.

The city officially started removing snow from main streets and sidewalks last Wednesday, saying their around-the-clock effort is set to last up to three weeks.

By 10 a.m. on Monday, crews said they cleared 362 kilometres worth of snow off roads, 288 kilometres off sidewalks, 44 kilometres of bridges and 42 kilometres off bikeways. After reviewing the snow removal efforts, however, Chow is unimpressed, calling for city crews to “do better.”

“Last week, I was repeatedly told that 100 per cent of the sidewalk had been plowed. I was told that this morning, I was told that last week, on Friday, well, I’m sorry, it is not true,” Chow said, speaking to reporters on Tuesday morning. “This is just unacceptable. We need to do more. We need to do better.”

The mayor pointed to seniors, those with mobility issues, and parents pushing their children in strollers who are struggling to move through the city’s sidewalks as a result, citing them as part of her reason for bringing forth concerns to the next executive committee and request the city manager to conduct a fulsome review of its winter maintenance operations.

Chow acknowledges the “painstaking work” that goes behind snow removal efforts in the wake of a major snowstorm, but provides recommendations and requests she feels will assist with future winter events.

On top of a full review of its winter maintenance operations, Chow requests City Manager Paul Johnson “determine whether private winter maintenance contractors have upheld their obligations under their contract” as part of his review and also evaluate all options to improve winter maintenance work “including renegotiating or breaking existing contracts.” Additionally, she requests an investigation into the gap between the city reports of fully cleared sidewalks and the reality of whether residents have seen a plow go down that walk, and an evaluation of how to make improvements.

“How did we get to the gap? Why is there a gap? And just how could anyone claim that is beyond me,” Chow said.

Chow also calls on the city’s auditor general to investigate the handling of the major winter storm earlier this month, and determine whether the city had actually incorporated the auditor general’s recommendations to address this storm.

In 2020, the city’s auditor general found the city could have saved $24 million over five years in terms of contractor deals whom specified they would not receive standby payment on top of payment for the actual time spent on work, as well as an estimated $7.1 million in overpayments to contractors for unperformed work as required over the same period.

The following year, city council approved 11 contracts for one contractor to deliver winter maintenance, with 11 new contracts launching in November 2022, lasting for seven years.

In a 2022 briefing, the city said new operations will use GPS and performance metrics to keep contractors accountability, including using dash camera footage, an insurance rebate and volume discounts.

A year later, Toronto’s auditor general revealed its findings of said contracts, finding the city had not actually made as much progress as it claimed, releasing its report at the same time a variance report revealed the city overspent on winter maintenance to the tune of $26.4 million the previous year.

The auditor general provided more than two dozen recommendations to city staff, and while the city said 18 of those 26 recommendations had been fully implemented as of May 2023, the auditor found only 10 had actually been enacted.

Management had said some of the delays related to equipment shortages brought on by the pandemic, saying the city anticipates its goals to be fully realized in time for the 2023-2024 winter season.

The auditor also investigated nearly $1.5 billion worth of winter maintenance contracts awarded by council in December 2021. Two companies, and their joint venture, scored 88 per cent of the 10-year contract value, prompting five other suppliers to file disputes.

Addressing the concerns of the city’s seven-year contract signed in 2021, Coun. Paul Ainslie told reporters on Tuesday he did his due diligence, conducting research by way of calling snow removal companies, because he “couldn’t understand how this was going to be achieved.”

“The thing that I heard loud and clear from everybody that I talked to is the contract that we were going to award at Toronto City Council was not going to work for our residents,” the general government committee chair said.

“There was going to be a raft of issues from not getting the snow cleared properly because we wouldn’t have the right-sized vehicles, if we had the proper vehicles at all.”

Ainslie continued by saying he is going to call staff charged with monitoring the contractors to ensure they complete their work, adding he is working for Torontonians in ensuring their tax dollars are being put to good use.

Chow said she would bring forward the snow clearing efforts to the next executive committee meeting, scheduled for March 19.

With files from CP24’s Joshua Freeman