Who Has to Clear the Sidewalk? Snow By-laws in Scarborough, North York and Pickering

Who Has to Clear the Sidewalk? Snow By-laws on Both Sides of the Rouge

Scarborough and North York are in the City of Toronto. Pickering is in Durham Region. They sit a few minutes apart on Kingston Road, and the rules for who clears what after a snowfall are completely different. Here is what each municipality actually requires of homeowners, and where the liability lands when someone slips.

Toronto (Scarborough and North York): the 2 cm / 12-hour rule

The City of Toronto clears roughly 98 per cent of all public sidewalks itself. The trigger is 2 cm of accumulation:

Windrows. When the road plow goes by, it leaves a ridge of packed snow across the end of your driveway. The City clears a three-metre opening in that windrow only on eligible collector and arterial roads, and only when the windrow is over 25 cm, aiming to do it within two hours of the plow. On most residential streets, the windrow is the homeowner's to clear. That surprises a lot of people, and it is the single heaviest shovelling job on the property.

Your own property. The driveway, front walk, steps, and porch are never the City's responsibility. Neither is the salting.

Pickering: 24 hours, or the City does it and bills you

Pickering's Ice and Snow Clearing By-law 6650/06 puts the sidewalk on the homeowner:

The City salts and plows its own roads and a set of designated sidewalks, mainly on major routes and around parks and facilities, but the residential sidewalk in front of your house in Amberlea or Bay Ridges is yours. Pickering also does not offer a windrow-clearing service. Eligible seniors and residents with permanent disabilities can apply for the City's discounted seasonal snow clearing program; spaces are limited and the application opens in the fall.

Where the liability actually sits

The by-law fee is the small risk. The big one is a slip-and-fall. In Ontario, the Occupiers' Liability Act makes the person in control of a property responsible for keeping it reasonably safe for anyone who comes onto it -- the mail carrier, a delivery driver, a neighbour, a visitor. That covers your walkway, steps, and driveway in both cities, and in Pickering it extends to the bordering sidewalk you are required to clear. Since 2021, the Act also requires anyone injured by snow or ice to give written notice within 60 days -- which cuts both ways, because a claim that does arrive will be recent, specific, and hard to argue if the property was not cleared.

Insurers ask one question after a fall: was the surface cleared and salted, and when? A homeowner who clears "when I get to it" has no answer. A seasonal contract with logged visits does.

The practical rules, side by side

What this means for your winter

If you are in Scarborough or North York, the City has the sidewalk; you have the driveway, the walkway, and -- on most streets -- the windrow. If you are in Pickering, you have all of it on a 24-hour clock. Either way, the part that actually hurts people and generates claims is the part that is yours.

A seasonal contract covers exactly that part: driveway, windrow, walkway, steps, salt every visit, and in Pickering the bordering sidewalk inside the 24-hour window, with every visit logged. Routes are built in the fall; call (647) 893-3876 or request a quote before the first storm.

Related: