Toronto Winter Services 2023-24
As we enter the month of December, I know many of us are anticipating Toronto's first major snowfall. Informed by lessons learned in previous seasons, the Transportation Services division has developed an updated winter services plan to tackle the snow and ice on city streets, sidewalks, bike lanes and trails. This year, City staff conducted advanced testing of all City-owned equipment and, in a significant change from last year, all of Ward 15 – Don Valley West will be served by the same snow removal contractor to ensure consistent service delivery.
During the winter months, the City conducts 24-hour patrols to monitor road conditions. In advance of forecasted snow or ice events, crews are dispatched to spray a Direct Liquid Application of salt brine on high-priority expressways, hills, bridges, and intersections.
On average, 130cm of snow falls in Toronto and the City is responsible for clearing 14,700km of roads, 7,900km of sidewalks, and 956km of bike lanes and major trails. The City's winter services plan includes:
Salting roadways when snow starts to stick to road surfaces;
Plowing roads according to snow accumulation standards;
Expressways – 2.5cm
Major roads and transit routes – 5cm
Residential streets – 8cm
Salting and plowing all public sidewalks, once 2cm of snow or ice have accumulated; and
Clearing bus stops and transit shelters within 12 hours.
In cases where there is less than 2cm of snow and ice accumulation, residents and businesses are asked to clear sidewalks adjacent to their property.
Transportation Services has advised that all winter maintenance service requests should be submitted to 311 after City crews have finished initial road plowing operations. While crews are mobilized, online 311 services will be suspended but requests for urgent health and safety issues will continue to be accepted by phone. Service requests related to sod and property damage will be actioned after the winter season has concluded, unless deemed an immediate health and safety risk.
To report snow-related issues, please call 311 or use the Web Self-Service page. For your reference, my office has compiled a list of links you can use to quickly report common winter maintenance issues:
For more information about winter maintenance service levels, please visit the City's Winter Operations webpage. You can also track the real-time locations of City plows in your neighbourhood – which are equipped with GPS tracking functionality – using the PlowTO Map.