Item - 2025.EX25.5

The Executive Committee recommends that:  

1. City Council direct the General Manager, Transportation Services and the Executive Director, Customer Experience to remove the temporary service request hold period historically implemented at the start of a winter event to enable the public to create winter maintenance service requests.

2. City Council direct the General Manager, Transportation Services and the General Manager, Fleet Services to determine surge capacity equipment needs related to major snow events, including sidewalk plows and snow removal equipment.

3. City Council direct the City Manager to work with Municipal VU Consulting Inc., in consultation with the General Manager, Transportation Services, the Executive Director, Toronto Emergency Management, the Chief Communications Officer, the Chief Executive Officer, Toronto Transit Commission, the Chief of Police, Toronto Police Services and applicable divisions, to finalize a robust Major Snow Event Plan and associated Communications Plan.

4. City Council direct the City Manager, working with Municipal VU Consulting Inc. in the development of the robust Major Snow Event Response Plan, to include a plan to identify and respond to geographic area or neighbourhood deficiencies in winter maintenance, based on the volume of winter maintenance service requests arising from a concentrated geographic area or neighbourhood, reporting by City staff or contractors, or other inputs, that may require an escalated and comprehensive response for timely resolution.

5. City Council direct the City Manager to report back to the Executive Committee on November 4, 2025 on the continued work with Municipal VU Consulting Inc., in consultation with the General Manager, Transportation Services, the General Manager, Fleet Services, the Chief Technology Officer, the Chief Procurement Officer as well as any other applicable divisions, to refine, prioritize, conduct costing and feasibility analysis and risk assessments as outlined in Attachment 1 to the report (July 11, 2025) from the City Manager ahead of the 2025-2026 winter for major snow events including:

a. quality monitoring tools and procurement;

b. identifying appropriate Fleet for snow clearing;

c. developing a Stand-alone Snow Removal Contract; and

d. developing a City Towing Strategy.

6. City Council direct the City Manager to consider as part of the report to the November 4, 2025 meeting of the Executive committee:

a. how value for money will be ensured from snow removal services, including options for optimizing the use of resources during periods of low or no snow removal activity; and

b. whether snow removal services are more efficiently provided by City staff or an external service provider.

7. City Council direct the City Manager to include as part of the report to the November 4, 2025 meeting of the Executive Committee an update on the implementation of:

a. the nine Auditor General recommendations on winter maintenance that are still in progress and not fully implemented; and

b. all winter maintenance recommendations submitted by Municipal VU Inc. outlined in Attachment 1 to the report (July 11, 2025) from the City Manager.

8. City Council direct the Director, Internal Audit to engage with a third-party consultant to conduct a forensic audit of the Winter Snow Maintenance contracts including:

a. tailored specifications within the request for proposal to favour certain vendors;

b. lack of transparency in scoring;

c. rejection of compliant bids; and

d. significant variation in cost estimation and bid.

The Executive Committee recommends that:  

1. City Council direct the General Manager, Transportation Services and the Executive Director, Customer Experience to remove the temporary service request hold period historically implemented at the start of a winter event to enable the public to create winter maintenance service requests.

2. City Council direct the General Manager, Transportation Services and the General Manager, Fleet Services to determine surge capacity equipment needs related to major snow events, including sidewalk plows and snow removal equipment.

3. City Council direct the City Manager to work with Municipal VU Consulting Inc., in consultation with the General Manager, Transportation Services, the Executive Director, Toronto Emergency Management, the Chief Communications Officer, the Chief Executive Officer, Toronto Transit Commission, the Chief of Police, Toronto Police Services and applicable divisions, to finalize a robust Major Snow Event Plan and associated Communications Plan.

4. City Council direct the City Manager, working with Municipal VU Consulting Inc. in the development of the robust Major Snow Event Response Plan, to include a plan to identify and respond to geographic area or neighbourhood deficiencies in winter maintenance, based on the volume of winter maintenance service requests arising from a concentrated geographic area or neighbourhood, reporting by City staff or contractors, or other inputs, that may require an escalated and comprehensive response for timely resolution.

5. City Council direct the City Manager to report back to the Executive Committee on November 4, 2025 on the continued work with Municipal VU Consulting Inc., in consultation with the General Manager, Transportation Services, the General Manager, Fleet Services, the Chief Technology Officer, the Chief Procurement Officer as well as any other applicable divisions, to refine, prioritize, conduct costing and feasibility analysis and risk assessments as outlined in Attachment 1 to the report (July 11, 2025) from the City Manager ahead of the 2025-2026 winter for major snow events including:

a. quality monitoring tools and procurement;

b. identifying appropriate Fleet for snow clearing;

c. developing a Stand-alone Snow Removal Contract; and

d. developing a City Towing Strategy.

6. City Council direct the City Manager to consider as part of the report to the November 4, 2025 meeting of the Executive committee:

a. how value for money will be ensured from snow removal services, including options for optimizing the use of resources during periods of low or no snow removal activity; and

b. whether snow removal services are more efficiently provided by City staff or an external service provider.

7. City Council direct the City Manager to include as part of the report to the November 4, 2025 meeting of the Executive Committee an update on the implementation of:

a. the nine Auditor General recommendations on winter maintenance that are still in progress and not fully implemented; and

b. all winter maintenance recommendations submitted by Municipal VU Inc. outlined in Attachment 1 to the report (July 11, 2025) from the City Manager.

8. City Council direct the Director, Internal Audit to engage with a third-party consultant to conduct a forensic audit of the Winter Snow Maintenance contracts including:

a. tailored specifications within the request for proposal to favour certain vendors;

b. lack of transparency in scoring;

c. rejection of compliant bids; and

d. significant variation in cost estimation and bid.

The President and the Vice-President, Municipal VU Consulting Inc. gave a presentation on the City of Toronto Winter Maintenance Review.

In February 2025, the City of Toronto experienced a series of major winter storms that resulted in over 50 centimetres of snow across the city during three events spanning seven days. This was the largest snowfall accumulation for the City of Toronto since January 2022, which saw 55 cm of snowfall in a single event. The scale and impact of these back-to-back storms in 2025 impacted Toronto’s snow clearing and removal operations.

As a result, City Council directed the City Manager to:

A. Conduct a thorough review of the City’s winter maintenance program, evaluate options to improve winter maintenance work and;

B. Undertake a forensic audit of the procurement for the 2022-2029 winter snow removal contract.

To undertake this work, the City Manager engaged the services of Municipal VU Consulting Incorporated (MVU) to complete an independent review of the City’s Winter Maintenance Program as well as Transportation Services’ response during the February 2025 Extreme Weather Events (Attachment 1). The City Manager also directed the Internal Audit Division to undertake a risk assessment audit of the procurement for the 2022 to 2029 winter snow removal contracts (Attachment 2).

This report provides a summary of the findings from the MVU report and the Internal Audit Division’s Fraud Risk Assessment. 

The MVU report revealed that the City’s winter maintenance processes and procedures tend to work reasonably well for routine snowfall, however they face systemic gaps that limit their effectiveness when major snow events hit. The MVU report identified several challenges related to three core issues - the City’s Major Snow Event Response Plan, snow storage and snow removal.

The Internal Audit Division was engaged to perform a Fraud Risk Assessment following direction from the City Council meeting in March 2025. This Fraud Risk Assessment identified the following potential fraud risk exposures:

1. Tailored specifications within the request-for-proposal to favour certain vendors

2. Lack of transparency in scoring

3. Rejection of compliant bids

4. Significant variation in cost estimation and bid

As a result, Internal Audit recommends undertaking a follow-up Phase 2 forensic audit led by an independent third-party auditor focused on the four fraud risk areas identified above commencing in August 2025.

The City Manager will report back to Executive Committee on November 4, 2025 with a comprehensive update on the results of the third-party forensic audit.

Staff are recommending the implementation of the following immediate actions ahead of the 2025-2026 winter season:

- Removing the temporary hold period at the start of a winter event to enable winter maintenance 311 service requests to be created by the public and referred to Transportation Services Division

- Creating a dedicated year-round Winter Operations Unit within the Transportation Services Division

- Determining surge capacity equipment needs related to major snow events, including sidewalk plows and snow removal equipment

- Creating a robust Major Snow Event Plan and associated Communications Plan in consultation with the consultant, City divisions and agencies

Further work and refinement prior to the report back will involve work led by MVU and City divisions to address recommendations from the report which includes costing, feasibility studies and risk assessments associated with:

- Quality monitoring tools and procurement

- Identifying appropriate fleet resources for snow clearing

- Developing a robust City-wide led Major Snow Event Response Plan and Communications Plan

- Developing a Stand-alone Snow Removal Contract

- Developing a City Winter Towing Strategy

The purpose of this report is to advise that the City Manager will be submitting a report that provides the findings of the first phase of a full review of winter maintenance operations to Executive Committee for its meeting on July 16, 2025.