Item - 2024.IE12.7

The Infrastructure and Environment Committee:

1. Received the report (March 13, 2024) from the General Manager, Transportation Services, for information.

This report provides an update on the progress of work prepared to date by Transportation Services to revise its Major Snow Event Response Plan, formerly known as the Extreme Winter Weather Plan.

The purpose of this Major Snow Event Response Plan is to describe how Transportation Services will address weather events which result in significant snow accumulation beyond what Toronto normally experiences. This accumulation creates obstructions in the right of way, primarily due to insufficient snow storage capacity. Storms of this kind have a much greater impact on the transportation infrastructure, and by extension the public, and such events can not be fully addressed within the Council-approved levels of service for a normal snowfall. Recovering roads, sidewalks and other infrastructure after these major events requires extensive snow removal activity in addition to typical salting and plowing.

In recent years, enhancements have been made to the winter services program for typical snow events, to incorporate the City’s equity and accessibility goals, reflect new and different types of infrastructure, and maintain a rapidly expanding cycling network. The City’s approach to major snow events needs to be modernized in the same way to address the changing needs of the City and its residents. The Major Snow Event Response Plan does not address the City’s entire response to extreme winter weather that can include one or a combination of freezing rain or ice precipitation, flash flooding, flash freezes, high winds, extreme cold temperatures, and/or any of these combined with snow. Snow event response forms one area of action under Toronto Emergency Management’s Extreme Winter Weather Coordination Plan.

Since the major storms in January 2022 and March 2023, Transportation Services has created some new processes for a major snow event, including earlier preparation and more frequent release of communications to the public; creating new protocols with 311 that ensure winter maintenance teams can best focus on priority areas but also assist residents with time-sensitive emergency needs; and updating the PlowTO website to provide residents with an alternative to 311 for information about the snow clearing activities.

Work to update the Major Snow Event Response Plan began in 2023 with both internal and third-party reviews of existing practices, and a review of best practices in other jurisdictions. More detailed analysis continues to review levels of service, available equipment and staff resources, reassessing priority areas for response, applying lenses of accessibility, equity, and goals in the City’s Vision Zero Road Safety Plan and Net Zero Climate Strategy, and communication strategies. Consultation with selected communities and interest groups will take place in spring 2024, including people with disabilities and people who cycle.  An updated Major Snow Event Response Plan will be presented to Infrastructure and Environment Committee in July 2024 along with the first annual winter maintenance operations update. This plan will be a dynamic document, with review and updates after new major snow events to iteratively drive continuous improvement.