Toronto must improve snow removal
Re Environment Canada, City of Toronto issue advisories as snowfall continues,
Feb. 7 I don’t care how much snow is falling. I care about whether municipalities and the province are doing their job clearing the snow.
Government is not doing its job if people are late for work because of road conditions, school buses aren’t operating, vehicles are unable to negotiate slopes and curves on public thoroughfares, people cancel plans for outings, auto-insurance claims spike and some call it a snow day and stay home from work altogether.
The primary role of government is to provide and maintain infrastructure — infrastructure required to keep the economy moving. While we pay higher taxes every year, standards of road maintenance continually decline.
Imagine if the local shopping mall had the same maintenance standards for its parking lot. It would drive away customers and, eventually, its tenants. Unfortunately, poor road conditions will keep people away from the shopping mall even if its own parking lot is clear and dry.
Clear the snow so that you don’t have to issue advisories; and don’t make a bad situation worse by sprinkling salt on the snow. Slushy roads are dangerous. Stella Kargiannakis, Toronto Toronto has an addiction to road salt and it’s getting worse. Rather than plowing snow first, then spreading salt sparingly to melt any icy patches, the default and lazy option for many individuals, businesses and even government agencies seems increasingly to spread mountains of salt on every available surface.
I see disturbing evidence of this daily on roads, parking lots, sidewalks, driveways and even in my local park.
Not only does this super-abundance of salt kill vegetation, it is also extremely damaging to infrastructure, vehicles, footwear and clothing.
Eventually, most of it ends up in our streams and rivers, Lake Ontario and our drinking water.
The indiscriminate use of salt to melt snow also results in a sloppy, slushy mess that pedestrians must leap over. Diana Hooper, Willowdale