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Toronto Businesses & the City Fail to Clear their Ice

Petro Canada

Michael Southern, spokesperson for Petro Canada said, "Our area business manager met with the retailer this week to ensure he understands what his responsibilities are in regards to the by-law. Hopefully they will make sure that they're in compliance with things going forward from now." This statement was made more than one week after our telephone call. To be fair to Petro Canada they asked for time to investigate the issue.

Title: Petro Canada snow covered sidewalks at Lawrence West & Culford Road

The problem with Southern's statement was the day before we'd discovered only 2/3 of the sidewalk had been cleared at the Petro Canada station located at Lawrence & Culford. They weren't 'in compliance'. Petro Canada's spokesperson Southern, upon learning of our findings responded, "Okay, as I said they met with him to ensure he understands what his responsibilities are and it's important for Petro Canada that we're in compliance with whatever requirements exist in the communities where we do business and we'll continue to follow up with the retailer from our end. In fact we're going to provide notice to our entire retail network to bring to their attention that in various communities there are these sorts of by-laws and they need to make sure they are in compliance with them whether or not it's Toronto or in other communities."

Pedestrians have complained to The Toronto Tribune as they've noticed we're photographing icy sidewalks. The City of Toronto has a by-law in place requiring residents and businesses to clear their sidewalks within 12 hours of snow or ice fall. Why is this so difficult for businesses whether large or small?

CBRE & South Grove Investments

The Toronto Tribune noted that the sidewalks at 163 Queen Street East were never cleared during the winter.

We contacted CBRE, taking their phone number from the sign outside 163 Queen Street East. Margot Friedman Director of eBusiness and Corporate Communications for CBRE returned our call.

163 Queen Street East advertising it's listing broker CBRE - above the ice covered sidewalks

Friedman said, "we don't own that building, nor do we manage it, we just have a listing on it. We're just the listing broker." Asked who is the person responsible Friedman said, "I don't know."

163 Queen Street East advertising it's listing broker CBRE - above the ice covered sidewalks

We then asked if CBRE are taking responsibility for this at all, Friedman replied, "It's not our responsibility, in this particular instance we are in the real estate brokerage business."

We asked, "who is responsible?" Friedman replied, "I don't know why don't you look up and see who the owner is."

This is the 'listing broker' for retail space. The sidewalk outside is an slippery mess. Is the threat of litigation from someone falling and injuring themselves a strong selling point for any property in Toronto?

We pressed and Friedman told us, "I'd be awfully awfully careful about what you say. I'm the head of Corporate Communications we have hundreds of listings I don't know the particular owner of this building. I can certainly find out. I personally do not know who the owner is, obviously the listing agent on the building does, but I do not."

The owners of 163 Queen Street East according to the Property Tax Rolls are South Grove Investments Inc. The property value for 2008 was $4,539,000. You'd think a 4 1/2 million dollar building could afford to clear it's ice. As of press time we have never once observed the sidewalks at 163 Queen Street East cleared.

City of Toronto's Fails to Clear Her Ice

There is supposed to be a remedy when businesses and residents fail to clear their ice. Call 416-392-7768 and report the errant address. At first The Toronto Tribune called 338-SNOW in error. We were told this is the wrong number and directed to call 416-392-7768. The people at the 7768 number confirmed they were the ones to call, to report sidewalks that needed to be cleared. One of the worst was the corner of Bay & Dundas, we learned it's the city's responsibility to clear this sidewalk. 80% of the addresses we provided were the responsibility of the city of Toronto to clear.

City Fails to Clear Bay and Dundas Sidewalks

Nothing was done. 24 hours later every single place we'd reported was still an icy mess. The Toronto Tribune took further action contacting the Director of Transportation Services for the City of Toronto, Peter Noehammer.

One unexpected problem we learned is Peter Noehammer  wasn't aware which number to call to report those who fail to clear their ice. He thought we'd used the wrong number to report the problem and said so.

Peter Noehammer told us, "that number [416-392-7768] is actually to register as a senior or disabled for our sidewalk snow clearing program." We pointed out that when we called 338-SNOW(7669) we were referred to 416-392-7768 to report those who aren't in compliance with the Toronto City by-law.

Noehammer replied, "Ah okay." Shouldn't he know?. He continued, "I'm sorry. You know why they gave you that number that's also the dispatch number for our Toronto Downtown Area, it's also for seniors."

It's a problem that the wrong number is being handed out. Noehammer tried for a save, "that is the number, I recognize that number as our registration number for seniors and disabled snow clearance number. It is also the dispatch for our Downtown district so it is the correct number." Took an awful long time to get this information from the one guy in Toronto that ought to know.

Title: Bay and Dundas Close-Up

The Toronto Tribune asked Noehammer, "why has it taken well over 24 hours for these places to be cleared and they've certainly have an icy build-up that began well before this week."

Peter Noehammer responded, "This is not a usual complaint for the city of Toronto regardless of where you are the volume of snow that fell February 1st in particular is starting to become problematic in that we're faced with a lot of complaints in dealing with removing the snow. We've also had a lot of complications with freezing temperatures that turned snow into a hard icy mass on many of the piles beside the road, on the road and on the sidewalk. If the concerns has been registered we will be able to get to it maybe by more than the typical turn around time that we have in the past. We just have so many complaints to deal with across the city that's why it hasn't been dealt with."

The city's Director of Transportation Services added, "The by-law calls for people to clear their snow from the sidewalks within 12 hours after the snowstorm. In the case now where it's 5-6 days after that snowfall. Colder temperatures have made it very difficult to remove that snow it's a different animal now." It wouldn't be if Noehammer had done what the city asks of the residents clear their snow and ice within 12 hours.

More than one week after this reporter spoke with Noehammer the places mentioned were not cleared at all. It continues to this day.

Why at the end of February haven't the places reported been cleared of snow and ice? Answer that one Peter Noehammer - or is he waiting for the warmer weather to do his job for him.