What to know
- Toronto city council passed a motion that calls for the formation of a program that would pay residents to shovel snow from under emergency conditions.
- The motion was carried at the council meeting on Thursday
- The program is expected to be implemented before the next winter season.
Toronto city council passed a motion to develop a program that would pay residents to shovel snow from public property.
Chow proposed the motion earlier this month citing the challenges the city faced in removing snow from sidewalks. Last year, the city had purchased new and improved sidewalk plows capable of moving larger amounts of snow.
“While this is an improvement, there is still more we can do to get Toronto moving after extreme storms,” her letter to the city read.
New York City – with an estimated population of 8.48 million people – hired temporary Emergency Snow Shovelers earlier this year following heavy snowfalls to remove snow and ice from public spaces like bus stops, crosswalks, fire hydrants, and stairs.
Chow’s motion calls for council to direct several municipal departments to develop a “paid surge capacity sidewalk shovelling program.”
The motion, following an amendment to involve the public workers union in the talks, was carried with 17 yes’s and nine no’s.
Among the councillors who voted in favour of the motion was Ward 19’s Brad Bradford, who is also running as a candidate in the upcoming mayoral election. Bradford had been a vocal critic of the city’s snow removal services, calling the past winter a “wake-up call” for Toronto.
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According to the city’s Department of Sanitation’s website, their pay starts at US$19.14 an hour and increases to US$28.71 an hour after the first 40 hours worked in a week. As of last month, however, that number was significantly higher – $30 to $45.
“We now have the opportunity to engage our counterparts in New York City on their recent success with a paid relief snow shovelling program, and implement lessons learned right here in Toronto,” Chow wrote.
In Montreal, the city offers boroughs $10,000 each under its ‘Brigade Neige’ program to organize snow removal for seniors and those with reduced mobility.
According to Chow, “Cities do best when we learn from each other and adopt best practices from other cities.”
As it stands, the motion seeks the program be implemented “as soon as possible and no later than the 2026-27 season.”
