After days of complaints from residents struggling to clamber over mounds of snow on sidewalks across Toronto, the City is acknowledging the problem and pledging to do better.

City manager Paul Johnson addressed the issue in an update on snow removal efforts at the City’s snow storage and melting site in North York on Wednesday.

“Yesterday, operationally, we realized that sidewalks have become an issue where we’re just not doing enough and we need to improve,” he said.

On Tuesday night, crews were sent out to inspect sidewalks across the city.

“Clearly there’s a gap in our performance around sidewalks and we’re hoping to improve that over the next 24 hour cycle.”

Johnson said the City has been fielding up to 4,000 daily calls to 311 regarding snow. Service requests have been increasing daily, with a “dramatic shift” to sidewalk related issues.

“Now, our number one service request related to winter is around sidewalks,” he said.

Data from councillors offices as well as on-the-ground inspectors also made it clear that more needs to be done to make sidewalks easier to navigate across the city.

To rectify the issue, Johnson said the City will now be sending out a full compliment of crew to clear sidewalks.

“This is one of the reasons we opened up 311. It’s there 24/7 so we can get this type of data and in our operational meetings we can adjust our approach.”

Apart from paying more attention to sidewalks, snow removal efforts will continue on bridges, highways, transit routes and residential streets in the coming days.

When it comes to residential areas, Johnson said very narrow, local roads are being prioritized.

“Those folks have no real options — there’s not a lot we can do with plowing, there’s not a lot we can do with our other equipment. We have to get in there and remove the snow. But we are still opening up capacity on our larger roads making sure emergency vehicles can get along well,” he said.

“This is our ramp up stage for us today and fuller operations will continue.”

Johnson reiterated that they need residents to move their cars when their street is slated to be cleared. Orange signs will be posted as notice 24 hours beforehand.

If a vehicle isn’t moved in time, the city will attempt a friendly tow to a nearby Toronto Parking Authority lot, but a $100 fine or a tow at the owner’s expense could also apply.

“I can’t stress that enough – when you see those orange sings it means we’re getting ready. Clear off that car, get ready to move that car because the faster we can get down your street the faster we can move on to the next street,” he said.

For those with residential parking permits, Johnson said they aren’t taking away their right to park within their permit area, they’re asking for residents to work with them.

“Help us because it saves us from having to do a friendly tow or whatever else we might have to do to clear it and then you’ll be able to come right back. Once we go down and get that cleared the street will become much more useable,” he said.

More staff and equipment brought in to boost snow removal efforts

In the update, Mayor Olivia Chow said that close to 1,500 workers have now been deployed to work on snow removal efforts.

Seventy-five more staff members from different divisions have been redeployed to assist with snow clearing and removal, in addition to the 100 previously redeployed.

“We have reached out to city workers, these public servants, and they rose to the occasion — whether they are from solid waste, water or any other outside workers,” she said

“Working closely with their union 416, they rose to the occasion and said ‘we will come to the support of our folks that are removing snow’ … they are pitching in right now to say ‘we are here to help out.’”

Additional inspectors are being deployed across the city to verify that the contractors hired by the city are working up to expected standards. Those patrolling inspectors are now reporting back to supervisors to add an additional level of oversight.

The mayor also said the city’s five snow dump sites are at full capacity and four melters are running non-stop to increase that capacity regularly. Johnson added that four new Bobcat snow plows are already out on the streets and two more have been delivered and will be operational soon.

A sixth snow dumping site in Etobicoke identified on Tuesday is no longer viable, but City staff are looking at two other sites to assess their suitability.

“[We have] no issues with capacity. The five [sites] that we have in operation right now are more than enough for us to begin and continue this operation over the next few days. We’re anticipating that we’re going to need [additional sites] both for the TTC operations as well as our own operations. So there’s a little bit of a need to regroup, but we have plenty of places we’re examining today,” said Johnson.

He also said that machines that were in the repair shop last year have been fixed and are back on the road. The City has also increased it’s ability to perform repairs and they are able to ensure that if breakdowns occur, they are dealt with quickly.

“We’re cycling through machines as they break down and getting them back out. We’ve been running on any given day between two-thirds and 75 per cent availability of machines — much better than last year.”