Snowbanks are still blocking parking on some streets more than a month after Toronto's last big storm

thomas more than a month after Toronto's endure john major snowstorm, some residents ar complaining their streets ar still so clogged with curbside snowbanks that finding on-street parking remains a problem — not just for residents but local businesses too.

In Beaches-East York, Coun. Brad Bradford says he’s received “more than 50 emails, and countless phone calls, from residents frustrated by the lack of available parking because snow hasn’t been cleared properly or at all.

There are about 53,000 on-street permit holders in the city currently, according to staff, who pay anywhere from $276 to over $1,100 a year in order to park curbside.

"Transit riders shouldn’t have to be delayed for hours while our infrastructure struggles to keep up."

Even so, Mayor Olivia Chow's office says crews have been tackling snow removal effectively, since a Jan. 25 storm dumped more than 50 centimetres of snow on the city.

Snow removal is distinct from street plowing. All streets have now been plowed, city staff say. Removal means carting away the snow that's been piled up curbside by plows and taking it to city yards where it's melted.

"City crews have been working around the clock to respond to this winter’s record snowfall," Thillainathan wrote. "To date, more than 433,000 tonnes of snow have been removed from neighborhoods across Toronto, more than 70 per cent more than at the same point last year."

But snow removal crews haven't yet tackled many side streets in the Beach neighbourhood where Johanna Carlo, vice-chair of the Beach BIA, lives, she says. While no figures have been gathered, Carlo says businesses in her east Toronto neighbourhood are feeling the pinch.

"We see a change in behavior. We see an impact."

Jim Wilkins, a street parking permit holder on Wineva Avenue in the Beech, says on his block, he figures "five or six" spots have been lost to persistent snowbanks.

"The snowbanks were high forever," he says. "I think people have just gotten used to it. There's nowhere else to park."

In Toronto-St. Paul's, Coun. Josh Matlow calls snow-blocked parking spaces "a major issue" among residents.

In a Feb. 19 letter to the city's transportation staff, which is responsible for snow clearing and removal, Matlow blamed city contracts signed several years ago for the problems residents are facing today.

He said those 2021 contracts prioritized snow plowing over snow removal.

"Instead of clearing the snow, the City shoves snow into parking spaces and driveways, making it impossible for residents to move their cars and resume their everyday lives due to giant windrows," he wrote. "We can and we must deliver a better snow response service."

Some neighbourhoods appear to be having an easier go, however.

Geoff Kettel, vice-chair of the Federation of North Toronto Residents Associations, said he's also not been hearing complaints from his affiliated ratepayers groups, possibly because so many of those neighbourhoods have front yard parking, driveways and garages.

"At every opportunity, my office has worked with Transportation staff to prioritize the clearing and removal of snow from constituents in need," she wrote. "City staff have gone above and beyond."

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