News

Cheer up, city finance officials: At least the weather is co-operating.

Fewer than 30 centimetres of snow have fallen in Toronto since the start of November - a month that set a record as the first snow-free November in this city since the weather office started keeping records.

"It's really unprecedented," Myles Currie, the city's director of transportation services, said of the dry winter.

The city has spent only $25-million on snow cleanup so far this season, $15-million less than it spent in the same period in 2008-2009. Surpluses go into a snowy day reserve fund.

The annual snow clearing budget is $80-million. Heavy snowfall in January and February of 2009 put the city $5-million over budget last year.

This year, transportation officials aren't plowing snow savings into the bank just yet.

Toronto prepares its snow budget by calendar year, not season, meaning nasty weather in November and December, 2010, could wipe out the surplus.

"If we get a couple of storms like we've had in Washington," Mr. Currie said, "we could use that $15-million before the end of the year."