'You are really not trying hard at all': Residents upset with slow pace of snow removal

Snow associated with a massive cold weather system moving across the U.S. has ended for the GTA and the clean-up exercise has commenced. But for some residents, the pace at which the city is removing snow from the streets and sidewalks is way too slow. 

In addition to the extreme cold, snow on the ground has been a challenge for both drivers and pedestrians.

Ontario Provincial Police says officers have responded to more than 350 crashes in the GTA within 24 hours starting on Saturday afternoon.

Some residents have taken to social media to voice their dissatisfaction with what they say is the slow pace at which the city is clearing the snow.

"I've not once seen any of these plows actually plowing," Hanno Rein said on Twitter,

Rein, who said he has been living in Toronto for six years, later tweeted that a snow plow had cleared his street.

Another resident who uses the twitter account, @Afghansufi, said: "First snow storm and no one's prepared, pathetic. Waste of tax dollars."

Meawhile, @JeremyJinxed said, "Really feels like Toronto dropped the ball hard on this one." And @Saltydawg said, "I like when people shovel snow on the road and a plow comes by ten minutes later and puts it all back in their driveway, that cracks me up."

"You are really not trying hard at all considering nothing has been plowed," another resident, Lisa De Bellis said.

So what has the city been doing to clean up the snow?

Mark Mills, the city's superintendent of road operations, said they deployed plows before 5 p.m. on Saturday.

"As it continued to snow, there was snow that fell after we plowed so we are back out today," Mills told CBC Toronto. 

Mills said priority was given to the main arterial roadways and expressways.

"We got into our local roads early this morning and it does take 14 to 16 hours to get those local roads clean," Mills said.

He adds with the current extreme cold temperatures and windy conditions, you will see some snow on the roads.

"We will cycle back and get that snow later on today, we hope these roads are in great condition by the Monday morning commute," said Mills.

An extreme cold warning remains in effect for Toronto and a period of severely cold wind chills is expected.

Environment Canada said a bitterly cold Arctic airmass will remain in place tonight with wind chill values of –35 C to –40 expected.

Wind chill values will moderate above the warning criteria of –30 later on Monday as winds ease, but cold temperatures near –20 or colder are still expected Monday night.

A milder air mass will begin to move in Tuesday.