Have you had enough snow for one winter? The City of Toronto says it will be providing an update on the snow clearing situation Monday morning and showing off some of its snow-clearing equipment at a city depot on Leslie Street.
In the meantime, TorontoToday has a "by the numbers" look at the city's winter roads operations, in the wake of all the snow the past few days.
$160 million — The city’s 2025 winter maintenance budget, pending city council’s approval of the 2025 budget. The budget includes contracts, salt, an education campaign, staff standby and mechanical sidewalk clearing staff costs.
1,400 — The number of vehicles in the city’s winter operations fleet (in-house and vendors).
7,900 — The number of kilometres of sidewalk the city has to clear after a snowstorm.
14,700 — How many total kilometres of road (lane kilometres) the city needs to plow.
130,000 to 150,000 — That's how many tonnes of road salt that are typically used during winter road maintenance operations each year. The city said it's aware of the risks of road salt to the environment and although there is ongoing research into the use of alternatives, road salt continues to be the most cost-effective de-icer across Canada.
2 — The number of hours it takes city vehicles to plow expressways down to bare pavement. For expressways, plowing starts at 2.5 cm of snow.
$615 — The fine for residents not clearing snow from public (sidewalk) and private property is $500 plus a $115 surcharge, for a total of $615. Property owners must clear sidewalks adjacent to their property of snow and ice if less than two centimeters of snow accumulates (if there is more snow, the city plows it). This clearing should be completed within 12 hours of the end of snowfall. Property owners are also expected to clear private property (e.g., driveways, walkways, stairs, ramps) within 24 hours of the end of snowfall.
5 — The number of snow storage sites in Toronto along with three snow melter sites. When the city receives unusually large amounts of snow, the snow piles can restrict traffic flow, interfere with sidewalks and parking, and obstruct sightlines. When this happens, the city collects the snow and moves it to designated snow storage sites.
95 — The percentage of public sidewalks that are cleared by a sidewalk plow. The remaining 5 per cent are manually cleared by workers in places where there are obstructions or narrow spaces.
18 — The number of pedestrian bridges in Toronto that the city applies salt to. Other pedestrian bridges are located in environmentally sensitive areas and cannot be salted.
2 — The number of centimetres at which city crews start to clear all bikeways of snow. It takes about 8 hours to make all the lanes safe and passable.
5 — The number of multi-use trails that are also cleared of snow at 2 cm of snow accumulation: Martin Goodman Trail, Humber Bay Waterfront Trail, Finch Hydro Corridor Trail, Eglinton Avenue West Trail and Gatineau Hydro Corridor Trail.
$200 — The fine for parking on a designated snow route during a major snow event. Most of these routes are downtown on streets where there are also streetcars. Here's a list of streets and a map to help you avoid doing that.
