Toronto Mayor John Tory said the city will have to declare a “major snowstorm condition” to to help with the snow removal process after a massive blizzard rocked the city on Monday.
Speaking at a press conference Monday afternoon, Tory said snowstorm conditions typically last 72 hours, but added that it will “likely” be extended.
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“This is, you know, a major winter storm and the city is continuing with its efforts to clean up after the storm,” Tory told reporters. “And it’s going to take some time and require some measures that are a bit more extraordinary than for just an average modest snowfall.”
Tory said on certain routes, cars that have not been moved may get a “friendly tow” to allow snow plows to remove snow.
“The snow removal necessitates that cars not be parked, for example, on arterial roads, and that even on some local roads, and so it prohibits that parking on the arterial roads,” Tory explained. “And [the condition] does allow the city to to friendly tow some of those cars to another place and nearby so that we can complete this operation.”
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Tory said snow removal operations will begin once snow plowing has concluded.
“There’s already been a number of rounds done over the course of the day,” he said, adding that there have been up to four rounds completed on some expressways.
“That work will have to continue because it has continued to snow over the course of the day,” he said. “And our crews will continue to do that work, and the snow removal will start once that work has been completed.”
He said once snow is removed from Toronto’s streets and sidewalks, it will be taken to a “safe location,” to melt.
Tory said there is “plenty of capacity” at the storage facilities. He said this will get the snow off the roads and sidewalks “for the time being.”