Latest news with #snowclearing
CBC
4 days ago
- Climate
- CBC
Revamping snow clearing, sidewalk repair on the docket for Edmonton city committee
Social Sharing The City of Edmonton's community and public services committee is set to make recommendations to council on how to potentially update snowing clearing and sidewalk repair policies to improve accessibility. City administration will present options to the committee, detailed in a public report, including proactively repairing sidewalks and getting more snow plows on the road. If committee receives the report for information — which is Administration's recommended action — Administration will continue with option one, which it says will reprioritize resources without impacting the budget. Option one would aim to clear "high social vulnerability areas" earlier. Other options could include adding various numbers of equipment, sidewalk repair and staff. The total budget for snow and ice control is $67 million each year. As Edmonton has grown, so too has the total length of public sidewalks, with a increase of eight per cent over the past 10 years. In 2022, a high priority sidewalk index was created for each sidewalk block in Edmonton and looks at various factors. These include pedestrian volume, proximity to places like schools, senior centres, high frequency bus stops, as well as the social vulnerability index, which looks at how various populations in Edmonton rely on sidewalk access. Those factors are part of the process in making recommendations to committee, administration said. Both sidewalk maintenance and enforcement services would retain their existing model under option one, which administration would pursue if the committee recommends it. The city manages close to 5,776 kilometres of public sidewalks with a $5.9 million annual operating budget dedicated to sidewalk maintenance, while minor and major capital renewals are funded separately. The report, and other options, will be presented to the community and public services committee on Aug. 11 where councillors will vote on whether to recommend changes to all of city council.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Revamping snow clearing, sidewalk repair on the docket for Edmonton city committee
The City of Edmonton's community and public services committee is set to make recommendations to council on how to potentially update snowing clearing and sidewalk repair policies to improve accessibility. City administration will present options to the committee, detailed in a public report, including proactively repairing sidewalks and getting more snow plows on the road. If committee receives the report for information — which is Administration's recommended action — Administration will continue with option one, which it says will reprioritize resources without impacting the budget. Option one would aim to clear "high social vulnerability areas" earlier. Other options could include adding various numbers of equipment, sidewalk repair and staff. The total budget for snow and ice control is $67 million each year. As Edmonton has grown, so too has the total length of public sidewalks, with a increase of eight per cent over the past 10 years. In 2022, a high priority sidewalk index was created for each sidewalk block in Edmonton and looks at various factors. These include pedestrian volume, proximity to places like schools, senior centres, high frequency bus stops, as well as the social vulnerability index, which looks at how various populations in Edmonton rely on sidewalk access. Those factors are part of the process in making recommendations to committee, administration said. Both sidewalk maintenance and enforcement services would retain their existing model under option one, which administration would pursue if the committee recommends it. The city manages close to 5,776 kilometres of public sidewalks with a $5.9 million annual operating budget dedicated to sidewalk maintenance, while minor and major capital renewals are funded separately. The report, and other options, will be presented to the community and public services committee on Aug. 11 where councillors will vote on whether to recommend changes to all of city council.
CTV News
16-07-2025
- Climate
- CTV News
Chow says city staff ‘failed' in handling of record Toronto snowstorm
Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow addresses a report on 'systemic failure' in city's snow-clearing operation, and ignoring of residents' needs. Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow says city staff 'failed in their job' during this year's record-breaking snowstorm, pointing to broken plows, ignored 311 calls, and misleading public updates as neighbourhoods remained buried in snow for weeks. Chow's made the comment to reporters ahead of an executive committee meeting where an Auditor General review of the city's response to back-to-back-to-back February storms as well as another conducted by city staff was scheduled to be discussed. The reviews found that while the city's snow clearing works during routine weather, its procedures 'face systemic gaps' during major storms — issues Chow says have been 'ignored' and reflect a 'failed culture.' 'The sole response to the snowstorm… failed my expectations,' Chow said. 'The city staff in charge with managing the snow clearance failed in their job. They had no idea what was happening out in the field.' 'They ignored 99.83 per cent' of calls In the first half of February, Toronto saw more than 94 centimetres of snow, which marked about 30 per cent more snow than the city would normally get during that time. The series of storms, which alone dumped more than 50 centimetres of snow on the city over the span of just days, prompted a council-ordered review after widespread complaints about unplowed sidewalks and inaccessible roads. cars, Toronto, snow Cars are buried in Toronto's east end after two snowstorms last week. (Brian Weather/ CTV News) The review found staff had claimed to fully implement 19 recommendations around snow clearing ahead of February's snowfall — when in reality, only eight were completed. In addition, the auditor general's findings also revealed public updates during the storm didn't reflect real-time conditions, while 311 and PlowTO communications proved unreliable. On Wednesday, Chow said that of the 29,000 snow-related 311 calls logged during the storm, staff responded to just 51. 'Worst of all, the staff team received 29,000 calls for help… and they ignored 99.83 per cent of them,' Chow said. Equipment issues also plagued operations, with city contractors using incorrect machinery that broke down mid-storm, Chow said. 'The snow plows broke down when we needed them most because the staff allowed privately contracted companies to use the wrong machines, despite the contract specifying which machines to use,' Chow said. 'We must fix this failed culture' A second independent review, ordered by City Manager Paul Johnson and released last week, found Toronto's winter maintenance program generally works but faces 'systemic gaps' that limit efforts during major snow events. Toronto snowstorm People walk through a snow-covered street following a heavy snowfall in Toronto, on Thursday, February 13, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Arlyn McAdorey (Arlyn McAdorey/The Canadian Press) Chow said both reports exposed 'errors that were not fixed over the years, despite four previous investigations into the city's snow removal processes.' She described inspection logs as incomplete, missing signatures, or skipped entirely, and criticized Toronto for failing to adopt more reliable equipment like Montreal and Calgary's more specialized plows. 'I will accept (the city manager's) recommendations as the first step to address this systemic failure,' she said. 'We must fix this failed culture of ignoring residents' basic needs.'
CTV News
16-07-2025
- Climate
- CTV News
Plows broke, 311 calls ignored: Chow slams city response to record snowstorm
Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow says city staff 'failed in their job' during this year's record-breaking snowstorm, pointing to broken plows, ignored 311 calls, and misleading public updates as neighbourhoods remained buried in snow for weeks. Chow's made the comment to reporters ahead of an executive committee meeting where an Auditor General review of the city's response to back-to-back-to-back February storms as well as another conducted by city staff was scheduled to be discussed. The reviews found that while the city's snow clearing works during routine weather, its procedures 'face systemic gaps' during major storms — issues Chow says have been 'ignored' and reflect a 'failed culture.' 'The sole response to the snowstorm… failed my expectations,' Chow said. 'The city staff in charge with managing the snow clearance failed in their job. They had no idea what was happening out in the field.' 'They ignored 99.83 per cent' of calls In the first half of February, Toronto saw more than 94 centimetres of snow, which marked about 30 per cent more snow than the city would normally get during that time. The series of storms, which alone dumped more than 50 centimetres of snow on the city over the span of just days, prompted a council-ordered review after widespread complaints about unplowed sidewalks and inaccessible roads. cars, Toronto, snow Cars are buried in Toronto's east end after two snowstorms last week. (Brian Weather/ CTV News) The review found staff had claimed to fully implement 19 recommendations around snow clearing ahead of February's snowfall — when in reality, only eight were completed. In addition, the auditor general's findings also revealed public updates during the storm didn't reflect real-time conditions, while 311 and PlowTO communications proved unreliable. On Wednesday, Chow said that of the 29,000 snow-related 311 calls logged during the storm, staff responded to just 51. 'Worst of all, the staff team received 29,000 calls for help… and they ignored 99.83 per cent of them,' Chow said. Equipment issues also plagued operations, with city contractors using incorrect machinery that broke down mid-storm, Chow said. 'The snow plows broke down when we needed them most because the staff allowed privately contracted companies to use the wrong machines, despite the contract specifying which machines to use,' Chow said. 'We must fix this failed culture' A second independent review, ordered by City Manager Paul Johnson and released last week, found Toronto's winter maintenance program generally works but faces 'systemic gaps' that limit efforts during major snow events. Toronto snowstorm People walk through a snow-covered street following a heavy snowfall in Toronto, on Thursday, February 13, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Arlyn McAdorey (Arlyn McAdorey/The Canadian Press) Chow said both reports exposed 'errors that were not fixed over the years, despite four previous investigations into the city's snow removal processes.' She described inspection logs as incomplete, missing signatures, or skipped entirely, and criticized Toronto for failing to adopt more reliable equipment like Montreal and Calgary's more specialized plows. 'I will accept (the city manager's) recommendations as the first step to address this systemic failure,' she said. 'We must fix this failed culture of ignoring residents' basic needs.'
CBC
05-07-2025
- Business
- CBC
Toronto still struggling to track snow plows with GPS, auditor finds
Social Sharing The city's plan to use GPS and field checks to track the work of snow-clearing contractors is still ineffective, Toronto's auditor general found in a new report. The key finding is part of a follow-up review of the city's snow-clearing service, which has been plagued with questions about effectiveness and efficiency, especially after it inked a controversial deal in 2021. Those questions grew louder after Torontonians filed tens of thousands of complaints to 311 in the wake of back-to-back-to-back storms that paralyzed streets this winter. Mayor Olivia Chow, who called last winter's storm response a "failure," is looking forward to reviewing the auditor's latest report, her office said in an emailed statement. "Ultimately, Torontonians expect snow to be cleared — we are going to get it fixed so this doesn't happen again," said Zeus Eden, Chow's press secretary. Auditor Tara Anderson first looked at snow clearing with a damning probe of the service in 2023, which showed the contractors struggled to get equipment on time and hire enough staff. In this follow-up, she found city staff still haven't implemented nine recommendations her office made, despite officials claiming all 30 had been completed. The GPS matter is especially key, her report notes, because it's the primary way the city tracks what work is getting done during a storm and whether it should be applying penalties to the contractors for not getting their plows out on time. "Ongoing GPS dashboard reliability issues hinder the Division's ability to monitor contractor performance," Anderson said in one document. Further, she said, "significant effort is spent manually comparing expected routes with GPS information, which is labour-intensive and time consuming." The auditor's review also shows, for the first time, how much money the city has sought from contractors stemming from performance issues. Anderson found staff are using an "inefficient, unsustainable, and unreliable method" to penalize the companies for non-compliance. Councillors voted in March for a full review of how the city handles its winter operations, which Chow's office said should be released this month. Councillors will first get a chance to ask the auditor questions about this report next Friday. CBC Toronto sent several questions to the transportation services division but did not receive answers by publication time. This story will be updated. New details about how city monitors contractors Some 70 per cent of snow-clearing in Toronto is handled by private companies. In 2021, the city inked a deal that saw two companies and their joint venture win the rights to handle almost all of that work, the only exceptions being the Willowdale area and the Gardiner Expressway and Don Valley Parkway. Three years in, Anderson found there are still issues with tracking the contractors' performance via GPS. Specifically, her new report states the "GPS dashboard used to monitor route completion is still not effective," noting it also suffers from "reliability issues." Multiple city councillors voiced frustration during the March meeting, recounting times where they were told by staff that streets had been plowed when they could see with their own eyes that wasn't the case. In response, transportation staff noted field audits — when staff go out to check on conditions — also take place. However, Anderson's report shows how little ground is covered by those audits and recommended the city use longer street segments to figure out where things are going wrong. The city's field audits, Anderson found, range in length from 60 metres to 1.36 kilometres. In total, she found the city was reviewing just two per cent of the contract area per storm. Worse, about half of those audits were missing "one or more" pieces of information. Penalties far lower than staff had suggested The auditor has previously flagged major changes to how the city penalizes companies, and this report has some final dollar figures. In 2023-2024, the city charged $43,000 in liquidated damages, Anderson found (liquidated damages are an amount of money, agreed to by both sides during a contract negotiation, to be paid out by one of the parties if a provision of that contract is breached). It also charged $381,000 in disincentives. In 2024-2025 (as of January) the city charged $63,000 in liquidated damages and $195,000 in disincentives.
