What to know
- The City of Toronto is launching a series of large-scale street cleaning blitzes ahead of upcoming FIFA World Cup 2026 games to prepare for an increase of residents and tourists.
- Hundreds of crews will tackle graffiti removal, litter cleanup, pothole repairs, and general street maintenance across the city.
- The initiative builds on a 2025 pilot that deployed thousands of staff and vehicles, resulting in significant clean-up results in debris removal, road sweeping, and infrastructure repairs.
- Running from May through October, the blitzes will target eight neighbourhoods selected through city data and 311 reports, with residents encouraged to flag areas needing attention.
A series of cleaning blitzes is set to hit Toronto streets a month before FIFA World Cup games are set to begin.
In a news release by the City of Toronto, Mayor Olivia Chow, as well as Deputy Mayor Ausma Malik, will be working alongside hundreds of maintenance and cleaning staff to ensure the streets are clear and ready to welcome thousands of residents and tourists to the games.
The initiative will begin this month, and will see crews tackling tasks like removing graffiti, clearing weeds and litter, maintaining trees and turfgrass, installing and maintaining new waste bins, clearing catch basins, focusing on illegal dumping hotspots, sweeping streets, boulevards and laneways, repairing potholes and bike lanes, and also repainting pavement markings with a focus on cross walks.
The initiative first began in June 2025, with an aim to keep public spaces around the city clean on an annual basis. The blitz included 2,000 staff and the use of 1,100 vehicles over five cleaning blitzes, to get the job done on Saturdays over a three month period.
As a result of last year’s inaugural initiative, 2,500 kilometres of roadway were swept, more than 1,000 tonnes of debris were removed, 5,000 potholes were repaired, 20 kilometres of pavement markings were repainted, 260 tonnes of illegal dumping site were cleared, 3,000 square metres of graffiti were removed, and 1,000 trees and tree infrastructures were maintained.
For this year’s scheduled blitzes, the city hopes to keep these numbers up.
“When our public spaces are clean, safe and welcoming, everyone benefits,” Chow stated in a release. “Keep Toronto Beautiful is about more than maintenance. It is about taking pride in our city, improving our neighbourhoods and making sure people feel comfortable and connected in the places they live, work and gather.”
Eight areas around the city will be chosen to undergo the cleaning blitzes. These neighbourhoods are selected through a combination of data from daily City crew patrols and 311 service requests.
The City of Toronto has asked residents and visitors to help identify locations that need attention by reporting issues through the 311 Toronto mobile app or on their website.
The blitzes will also focus on highly used public spaces to prepare for FIFA.
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The first day of cleaning began on Saturday and will continue on scheduled days until October.
