Toronto ready for 'whatever happens' this winter

The city says it did everything it could to deal with a dusting from Mother Nature on Wednesday and it is ready to handle whatever gets thrown at it in the months ahead.

Toronto got hit with an early blast of winter at about the same time that drivers began heading home from work.

Delays ensued as vehicles slid around the streets, got stuck and, in some cases, crashed. Dozens of flights at Pearson airport were delayed or cancelled as a result of the weather. During the worst of it, Toronto police were responding to a crash every two minutes.

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Coun. Denzil Minnan-Wong, the chair of the city's public works and infrastructure committee, said the city deployed salting trucks to treat the roads being blanketed by snow during the evening rush hour.

"The number one thing that we try and do is try and get those salters out to make the roads as safe as possible for people to get home," he said Thursday, during a news conference in which he and other officials outlined the city's plan for its winter operations.

By Thursday morning, the city had reported making four rounds with its salters along its expressways and arterial routes.

Minnan-Wong said he, too, faced issues on his drive home.

"I was caught in that rush hour at that time. It took me longer to get home as well," he said. "And one of the reasons I think it all took us longer to get home because the snow was actually falling during the rush hour and that made it even more difficult."

Looking ahead to the next winter storm and all those that will follow, the city says it has a fleet of 600 snow plows, 300 sidewalk plows and 200 salters at its disposal.

"We're prepared again this year for whatever happens," said Minnan-Wong.

Stephen Buckley, the city's general manager of transportation services, said a winter service review was conducted last year to determine how things stood.

"We found that we basically stack up very favourably versus most other cities in Ontario," he told CBC News on Thursday. "Council endorsed the levels of service we’ve been providing and so we feel like we’re delivering on that."

Snow clearing takes time

The city says that it begins salting when the snow starts falling.

But it doesn’t begin plowing operations until 2.5 centimetres has accumulated on an expressway. It begins plowing main roads after five centimetres of snow has fallen.

Local road plowing ensues when accumulation reaches eight centimetres.

"We want to remind residents again it takes time to clear all the local streets," Minnan-Wong said. "It takes between 14 and 16 hours for the plows to clear all the roads in the city."

Minnan-Wong said residents can help the plows do their work when the snow is coming down.

"We don't want you to drive if there's a snowstorm if you don't have to, we'd ask you to use public transit whenever possible and to keep your parked cars off the streets," Minnan-Wong said.

"We also don’t want you to push the snow back onto the road after we've just taken it off. It’s dangerous to put it on the road and it also hampers the work of the plows."

On Thursday, the city also issued a reminder to seniors and disabled residents about snow clearing.

The city will clear the snow from the sidewalks outside the homes of these Torontonians if that service is not already provided by a machine. Residents looking to register for this service can call 311 to do so.