Canadian Chat → [Rant] Snow falls, Toronto panics

Toronto also gets less snow, generally, than places like Montreal, Ottawa, etc.

Montreal especially has the equipment and resources to move large amounts of snow efficiently. Because they routinely get storms that dump large amounts of snow. Toronto not so much.

True, but they get a little bit more than Detroit and Pittsburgh, who PX was comparing them to in his question.

And I was honestly surprised at some of the names on the list of places in Canada that average less snow per year than Toronto. Winnipeg, Saskatoon and Regina among them, and Edmonton only 2cm more.

Well that makes sense at least, thank you.

Immigrants account for 46% of Toronto's population, and 23% in Montreal. But the ability of a city to deal with snowfall has nothing to do with its immigration patterns: immigrants in Montreal typically only take a year or so to adapt to the weather. Their first winter is a shock, and by their second winter they're prepared.

Instead, the preparedness of the city for snowfall comes down to budget. Montreal has the highest snow removal budget of any city on the planet. Not per-capita, not per-area, but in pure total number of bucks. We spend more than Moscow (although the weak Canadian dollar has narrowed that gap to basically par). Toronto has roughly half the snowfall and roughly half the budget, but a moderately larger surface area. And there are some things that don't change with reduced snowfall: it doesn't take half as long to clear a snowfall that is half as deep. You'll have less trucks to cart away, but still have to cover the same number of roads.

tl;dr: Toronto doesn't spend enough on snow removal and management.

Pittsburgh proper = 308k
Toronto proper = 2.5 million

Pittsburgh CMA = 2.3 million
Toronto/Hamilton CMA = ~7 million

You're talking way different scales which is what a lot of people don't realize. The highways around the GTA are already usually quite busy (401 through Toronto is the busiest highway in North America) so when you add in the element of snow, you're grinding 7 million people down to a snails pace.

It's a lot different when you're talking about a city like Pittsburgh which is about 1/10 the size of Toronto proper in terms of population. I'm surprised that the population of Mississauga is more than double Pittsburgh. Brampton itself is bigger, as is Hamilton and Oakville/Burlington combined.

If you want to compare, Chicago is probably the closet comparable. Average annual snowfall is about 3/4 of Toronto's, populations are closer than most other cities people are trying to compare to.

When you're talking Toronto, you're talking a whole other scale to most Canadians. The GTHA has a massive population, deals with congestion on the best of days, so when it snows you do make it that much tougher to get around.

Good points, though greater Montreal (Montreal CMA) is about 4 million now.

Must be tough for Montreal because there are so darn many municipal governments in the region, so many just on the Island of Montreal....

Pittsburgh btw the snow is a special challenge because the area is so damn hilly and has so many bridges over the various rivers.... Sort of similar to Montreal in that regard although smaller population as you said.

Not really, each city handles its own snow clearing as part of its own budget, just like would be the case anywhere else. They each spend the appropriate amount of money to keep streets in their cities clear. Just because Montreal is next door and controls most of the smaller city's budget via the kangaroo court known as the "agglomeration council" doesn't change that.

Highways are obviously cleared by the provincial government.