Are you one of those people who thinks that the suburbs get the short end of the stick in Toronto while downtown gets all the, um, gravy? Consider this.
Whenever Toronto gets a snow storm, downtown elitists are out in the cold shovelling their sidewalks. Meanwhile, in the hard-done-by suburbs, householders can sit snug by the fire while the city does the work for them.
Under city rules, only suburban areas such as Etobicoke, North York and Scarborough get their sidewalks plowed. Downtown residents and businesses are expected to clear their walks within 12 hours or face a fine of $125.
Suburbanites won this lovely perk after amalgamation in 1998, when the suburbs were combined with the central city under one municipal government. Originally only North York got its residential sidewalks cleared after a snowfall. Everywhere else, people did their civic duty and shovelled their own.
The sensible thing would have been to get rid of the North York exception and call on everyone to heed that quintessential Toronto slogan: be nice, clear your ice. After all, people in wintry Calgary and Edmonton manage it without the city's help. But North York, then led by outspoken mayor Mel Lastman, would not give up the privilege. So city council decided to extend sidewalk plowing to every part of the city where it is possible.
A fleet of 300 sidewalk plows rolls out whenever a storm dumps more than 8 centimetres of snow - 5 centimetres in January and February when it is more likely to build up and turn to ice.
Suburban areas with sidewalks wide enough to accommodate plows and with grassy boulevards big enough to dump the snow on get the service. Downtown areas with narrower walks and nowhere but the street to dump the snow do not.
Logical, but hardly fair. Rosemary Dale, a retired teacher who lives in North Toronto on a big corner lot, shovels her own walk. Just down the block, across the old boundary with North York, she watches the little plows clear her neighbours' sidewalks then wheel around abruptly before reaching her place.
"Friends in Don Mills and Etobicoke chuckle smugly when we complain about shovelling," she writes. "They don't pay extra taxes for this service. Shouldn't we pay less taxes in that we are saving the city money?"
Better yet, shouldn't the city cancel suburban clearing and get all residents to shovel their own walks? City officials say sidewalk clearing of all kinds costs $8-million to $10-million a year, no small change at a time when Mayor Rob Ford is trying to cut every cent of waste from the budget.
"These are the kinds of things that have added up to the enormous budget we have now," says Deputy Mayor Doug Holyday.
He says that many residents complain that the sidewalk plows accidentally tear up grass, costing them a bundle for new turf. Others complain the plows don't get to them fast enough.
It takes the average sidewalk plow 13 hours to complete its route, so the snow can sit unshovelled as residents sit back and wait for the city to do the job for them. Many give up and shovel themselves, which means some plows are running redundantly over half-cleared stretches of sidewalk.
Though Mr. Holyday represents Ward 3, Etobicoke Centre, a suburban area that gets the snow-clearing service, he thinks it would make more sense to clear sidewalks only for seniors and the disabled. That is how it works downtown. If you are an able-bodied person, whether downtowner or suburbanite, you don't really need government to clear your walk.
Sidewalk plowing is a luxury in tight times. If Mayor Ford is so keen to cut wasteful perks for city councillors and city officials, why not cut them for city residents, too?