City Council has approved an updated snow removal plan with the hopes of avoiding last February’s debacle that left residents angry and frustrated.A series of storms dumped more than 50 cm of snow on Toronto, and days later, sidewalks remained impassable. The removal eventually took a total of 18 days to complete.A report from city staff later found that almost half of the City’s winter sidewalk clearing equipment was not operational during the snowstorms. Mayor Olivia Chow called for a review of the contracts with private companies hired to do snow removal for Toronto.A review of snow clearing operations looked at spending more money, but the city instead decided on a centralized command structure that will include various departments such as TTC, police, fire and snow clearing, as well as allowing residents to alert the city of areas that are in need of immediate attention.“This city should always have taken an emergency response approach when we have a massive, massive snowfall,” said Coun. Josh Matlow.City manager Paul Johnson is confident there will not be a repeat of what happened earlier this year.“We listened to what happened last year and I think we’re going to respond in a much better way this year,” he said. “I can confidently say that if we were to see a similar event as we had last February, the experience of Torontonians would be completely different this time around because of the things that we’ve put into place.”It would not be a stretch to say the future of Chow’s administration could rest on how well the city does clearing the snow this season. Voters go to the polls next October, and a second year of not clearing the streets or sidewalks will not go over well.“Let’s remember how we arrived at this moment,” said vocal critic and declared mayoral candidate Brad Bradford. “Last year, in February, the city was thrown into chaos because Mayor Chow and this administration were not able to take care of the basics – snow clearing, snow removal – in a winter city like Toronto.”Coun. Alejandra Bravo’s Davenport ward was one of the areas heavily affected by last February’s storm. She says both public service and private contractors need to be held accountable.“I have high expectations and I will be holding people accountable because my ward cannot suffer the way it did last year,” she said. “We all expect as residents better service and more value for money.”Apart from being able to call 311 sooner to be able to report problems, snow removal operations will also begin sooner this season. There will also be changes to ploughing. Whereas before, sidewalk ploughs would go through, then the roads would be ploughed, and all the snow and ice would be piled back onto the sidewalk. Now, roads will be first.Council also approved enhancing public access to real-time winter operations information, including push notifications on snow clearing, removal, and parking restrictions during winter events; increasing fines for vehicles blocking streetcars on snow routes from $200 to $500; and looking into requiring corporate property owners to clear sidewalks in front of their properties at their own expense.