Slow snow removal irks residents in Toronto neighbourhoods hit hardest by storm

TORONTO — Susan Cook was holding a shovel in her hands and carving out the edges of a snowbank by her driveway in Toronto’s east end on Friday afternoon.

She said chipping away at the pile has become a daily routine for her since Fallingbrook, the Scarborough neighbourhood she lives in, was buried under more than 60 centimetres of snow last Sunday.

Cook said the snow on either side of her driveway poses a safety risk whenever she tries to back out her vehicle.

“I’d have to go so slowly because I have no line of sight for the traffic that’s coming up and down my streets. So it’s actually a hazard,” she said in an interview outside her home.

“And I wish that the city could pay attention to these mountains of snow that are actually a traffic hazard.”

Neighbourhoods along the coast of Lake Ontario in Toronto’s east end were among the hardest hit by a storm that saw the most snowfall in one day since records began in the 1930s.

Five days later, the area was still reeling.

Vehicles parked on the roadside were still buried. Pathways were half-cleared. Residents reported that some roadways had not yet been plowed, even as the city was carrying out snow removal operations in extremely frigid temperatures.

Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow promised more proactive and efficient snow removal this time around after criticism of city operations during heavy snowfall in February 2025.

The City of Toronto said the cleanup was expected to take several days, and it asked residents to be patient as the snow removal continues. It noted that calls about snow clearing issues have been decreasing over the past few days.

Patience is wearing thin for some east-enders.

“I live on the street over here and … it has not even been touched by a plow,” said Sharon Barr in the Beaches neighbourhood.

“Basically, cars have gone up and down it, so there’s tire tracks and cars have pressed down the centre, but it hasn’t been touched by the city in any way, sidewalks or street.”

Barr, who was walking her dog at a park on Friday, said she has lived in the neighbourhood for 35 years and it was the most snow that she has ever seen in the area.

She said she called 311 to report the lack of street clearing, but the city has been “backlogged” in its response.

She said while she understands the challenges that come with snowfall of this magnitude, five days is getting to be a long wait. “It would be nice if they did some of the side streets now.”

Judy Wilkings, who was out walking her dog at a park near the Scarborough Bluffs, shared mixed views about the city’s snow-clearing work.

She said crews have done a great job cleaning up roads in the area where she lives, partly because no cars were parked on the street.

“But their sidewalk removal was horrific, and it continues to be horrific. They’ve ended up leaving ruts,” she said. “So it makes it really difficult for people with young children and strollers and even people that have mobility issues to walk through the city.”

She said the streets outside her home were cleared once during the storm, and people chipped in with shovels and snowblowers to clear the sidewalks. Then snowplows came a second time in the middle of the night, she said, and undid those efforts.

“They just made a mess of the sidewalk, so it made it harder for people to manoeuvre through the neighbourhood.”

Devin McKinson, who also lives in the south end of Scarborough, said he thinks the city could have done a better job.

“It’s been days, and I was driving around and still I could see piles of snow everywhere,” he said. “There were some roads that were just really messed up … The snowplows came in and just blocked everybody’s driveway.”

Not everyone is angry at the city.

Louis Yu, who lives in North York and visited the Scarborough Bluffs for a walk, said Toronto’s response has been “reasonable” all in all.

“It’s pretty OK. All the way is clear to come here,” he said. Pointing to a cleared parking lot, he added the snow-removal crew had done a “perfect” job.

“They only have so much … resources, and there are so many things they have to tackle at the same time,” Yu added.

He said Torontonians shouldn’t expect a massive snowfall to disappear from the streets in less than a week.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 30, 2026.

Sharif Hassan, The Canadian Press