Time to clear all sidewalks
With Toronto’s unseasonably warm November weather, sidewalk snow clearing is hardly top of mind.
But decisions are being made at City Hall that will determine the conditions of Toronto’s sidewalks when the snow does come — no doubt sooner than we’d like. And, unfortunately, those decisions aren’t good ones.
Yet again Toronto seems bound and determined not to do the right thing and extend sidewalk snow clearing to all areas of the city.
Right now, there’s a truly absurd policy that provides mechanical sidewalk plowing largely in the former cities of Etobicoke, North York and Scarborough, but not in the more central parts of Toronto where it’s most needed.
Councillors Josh Matlow and Mike Layton tried to make inroads on this absurdity but their motion to look into clearing more of the city’s sidewalks this winter was voted down by the city’s infrastructure and environment committee.
Council could — and should — revisit this at its next meeting on Nov. 25-26.
The existing system isn’t just inequitable, with some taxpayers getting city services denied to others, it’s shortsighted and dangerous.
Toronto leaves the responsibility for clearing sidewalks in the central core, the densest part of the city with the most pedestrians, to individual business owners and residents. Not surprisingly, they do a fairly haphazard job of it. And it is pedestrians, including vulnerable seniors and those with disabilities, who face the dangerous consequences of that.
In the pandemic winter ahead of us, going for a walk may well be one of the few remaining safe and socially acceptable activities. That makes this terrible policy even worse this year.
There are more than 1,000 kilometres of sidewalks on residential streets that the city doesn’t clear. Everyone in those areas who can shovel the sidewalk in front of their home should follow the rules and do it. But there are plenty of reasons — some good, others not so good — why that doesn’t happen consistently enough to make sure pedestrians aren’t left navigating piles of snow and treacherous patches of ice.
The city knows that well. It also knows just how little hope it has of forcing greater compliance through inspections and fines. Last winter, the city received 3,000 complaints, conducted 624 inspections and issued just 44 fines.
Ridiculously, the infrastructure and environment committee decided to double down on an enforcement system that it knows does not produce the results the city needs — clear sidewalks — and certainly won’t do a better job of it during a pandemic when inspectors have a host of other concerns to worry about.
It’s time for the city to put away its tired excuses and just do the right thing.
Yes, plowing sidewalks in the central city, where sidewalks can be narrower with more obstructions and on-street parking, is harder work and it will take specialized equipment. But it’s hardly an impossible task; Ottawa and Montreal, for example, figured it out long ago.
And, yes, it will cost more money. But at the low end, the estimate of the increased cost is barely more than the nearly $7 million on average the city pays out in insurance liability claims for slips and falls on icy sidewalks.
Toronto was amalgamated more than two decades ago — plenty of time to have created a fairer system and to know just how poorly this one works.
Sidewalk snow clearing isn’t a service to homeowners so much as a service to pedestrians.
Sidewalks are public space and it’s time the city took proper responsibility for them, regardless of whether they’re in front of homes in the ’burbs or the city centre.