Some of Toronto's brand new sidewalk snowplows were out of service as storm hit
CBC
The city spent $5.3 million on sidewalk snowplows last summer, yet more than a dozen of them were out of service as Monday's fierce storm belted Toronto, CBC News has learned.
Barbara Gray, the head of the city's transportation services division, said the city will eventually have about 50 sidewalk plows to serve the downtown area (other parts of the city are served by contractors). When the storm hit, 34 of those vehicles were available, Gray said, and the deep snow posed a problem.
A source with knowledge of the situation said in one district alone, 11 of 15 Holder sidewalk plows were out of service during Monday's storm.
CBC News sent specific questions about the issues to the city on Tuesday morning but didn't receive a response until Wednesday. City staff didn't confirm any specifics, but said in that email all of its plows are now up and running.
The city had not mentioned the issue with sidewalk snow clearing in its previous public updates.
Coun. Paul Ainslie asked about the snowed-in sidewalks at Wednesday's budget committee and received confirmation there were problems.
"We did have some mechanical issues," Gray confirmed.
The city's David Jollimore offered a bit more clarification that there was a "specific sensor issue" that was worked out with the vendor.
Jollimore chalked it up to "growing pains" of working with new equipment. Gray said she believes the plows, worth about $100,000 each, are still the right machine for the job.
"For our normal conditions for Canadian winters, these plows do a fine job," she said.
Not everyone agrees.
One source within the snow-clearing industry said they had the same machines in the past and would never purchase them again.
"I had three of them, I had to keep them inside because they wouldn't start in the cold," they told CBC News.
"Imagine a snow machine that won't start in the cold."
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