Toronto crews working to remove snow from streets, starting with hospitals: Chow

TORONTO – Crews in Toronto are shifting their efforts from plowing streets to removing snow and trucking it to storage facilities across the city after Sunday’s record-breaking winter storm, Mayor Olivia Chow said on Tuesday.

After removing snow near hospitals, crews will move on to residential streets on Wednesday, Chow said in an update on the aftermath of the storm that dumped up to 60 centimetres of snow onto some neighbourhoods.

“Crews will be going street by street informing residents when the snow removal will happen on their block,” she said. “Starting now and over the next 48 hours, our crews will begin picking up and hauling snow away from residential streets.”

More than 1,300 city staff and contractors have been mobilized as part of the effort to clear the streets and remove the snow, with additional 100 staff redeployed for support, the mayor said.

Chow said the city has increased its capacity by securing a new snow dumping site in Etobicoke, for a total of six snow storage and melting facilities. 

Those sites are able to take in a “steady rotation of dump trucks” filled with snow removed from the streets, city manager Paul Johnson said. 

“The reality is this is a massive dump truck operation because they fill up pretty quickly,” he said at the press conference.

Johnson said the city also has more capacity to melt snow this season, after struggling last year with some melters that did not function at times. 

Snow removal after such a big storm is a large task that will take a number of days to finish, Johnson said. He said some sidewalks are still covered but crews are trying to clear as much space as possible. 

“We’re further ahead this year in terms of overall sidewalk clearing, so the number that are … unplowed entirely is much, much lower,” he said, although he acknowledged that residents still have to navigate narrow sidewalks lined with piles of snow.

“Now we’re going and dealing with the complaints and the concerns that are being raised about how we can widen those sidewalks, particularly in high traffic areas,” he said.

Before snow removal begins on local streets, city crews will put up signs and inform residents that they have to move their cars, Johnson said.

“We actually go door-to-door knocking when we come to do the residential snow removal, so that will help people understand what’s coming next,” he said, adding that some parked vehicles may need to be towed to a nearby location to make room for snow removal equipment. 

The city has activated its second major snow event response plan of the year, which includes a parking ban on some major streets as well as streetcar routes.

Environment Canada said Pearson International Airport saw the highest daily total snowfall on record with 46 centimetres on Sunday, bringing this month’s snowfall total to 88.2 centimetres and making it the city’s snowiest month since records began in 1937.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 27, 2026.