Toronto residents could get paid to shovel their sidewalk as early as next winter.<\/p>\n
During Thursday\u2019s council meeting, councillors approved a motion<\/a> directing city staff to develop a paid surge-capacity sidewalk shovelling program similar to those in New York City<\/a>, Minneapolis, and Montreal, with possible implementation no later than the 2026-2027 winter season.<\/p>\n Some councillors were skeptical about the program, pointing to how the city already pays contractors to shovel sidewalks. <\/p>\n Coun. Stephen Holyday, who voted against the motion, said the city would be paying twice if the program proceeded. <\/p>\n \u201cHow could we face constituents and say, \u2018I\u2019m sorry your taxes are going up, but we have all these contracts, but we\u2019re going to pay to do it twice?\u2019 It\u2019s just not logical,\u201d the councillor said.<\/p>\n Property owners in some areas of the city used to be responsible for clearing their own sidewalks, but that changed in 2021 when council voted to expand its snowplowing program to include sidewalks.<\/p>\n However, the city has faced criticism for its snow-clearing operations<\/a>, which have prompted a number of audits that found problems with its contractors.<\/p>\n In January, City manager Paul Johnson revealed<\/a> only 66 to 75 per cent of sidewalk machines were operational on a given day due to reliability issues.<\/p>\n Coun. Jon Burnside called the motion a \u201cterrible idea\u201d and a \u201cdisaster waiting to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n As the program has not yet been developed, city staff did not have many answers for councillors who asked what it would look like.<\/p>\n Johnson said during council meeting that, based on the intent of the motion, the program would only be used during \u201cextraordinary snow situations\u201d to speed up clearing.<\/p>\n \u201cSo, this is not a year-round, do it every time, as you\u2019ve heard from our staff already. Not when we hit two, three, four centimetres. We\u2019re fine on that,\u201d Johnson said.<\/p>\n He noted the program is accounted for within the winter budget.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019d have to be one of the challenges that we have to overcome as we look at how we might be able to do this,\u201d Johnson told council.<\/p>\n He was also asked about the risks, and Johnson said there could be when it comes to health and safety.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat happens if somebody gets injured? What happens around training? Those types of things that we would have to address,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Instead of implementing this program, Coun. Mike Colle said the city should focus on making sure the contractors the city pays to clear snow do their job.<\/p>\n \u201cNo matter what we do, you\u2019re going to have these extraordinary weather events. You can\u2019t control the incredible weather we had this winter. You can\u2019t control it by passing silly motions,\u201d Colle said.<\/p>\n Toronto has been hit hard by winter storms this season, leaving many sidewalks covered with snow for days, which frustrated residents.<\/p>\n