March 23, 2005 Response from Richard Butts, Director, Solid Waste Collections, South District:

"Each winter we receive complaints from residents related to the issue of garbage and recycling trucks breaching snow banks and causing the snow to cover already cleared sidewalks. This is not a new issue and we attempt to minimise the occurrences each year.

The operating environment in downtown Toronto is very restrictive at the best of times and in the winter months our operating space is further reduced as a result of snow accumulation.

As a result of the accumulation, our vehicles are required, for safety and operating reasons, to move to the extreme right hand side of the road, and sometimes further, to allow for the flow of traffic. Where snow banks are on both sides of the road and particularly on roads with on street parking, vehicles are sometimes unable to pass our vehicles unless we move to the extreme right hand side. As a result snow banks can become compromised and the result, in some cases is snow deposited on an already cleared sidewalk. We regret this outcome and try to minimise it but unfortunately by attempting to solve one issue, traffic flow, we create another.

As stated previously these complaints occur each winter and we attempt to minimise the calls by monitoring our staff's activities to ensure that where possible we do not breach the snow banks. We agree that the calls have been more frequent this year and the only conclusion we can draw is that perhaps we have had more snow "events" than last year and greater accumulation.

We can assure you that we take appropriate steps to minimise the issue and will continue to do so."