City launches cleaning blitz to refresh Toronto's public spaces, streets and parks for the summer

Rochelle Raveendran · CBC News

· Posted: Jun 21, 2025 1:48 PM EDT | Last Updated: 6 minutes ago

Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow launched a caller citywide inaugural Saturday aimed astatine keeping public spaces clean, harmless and well-maintained arsenic radical caput outdoors to bask the summertime weather. 

Under the initiative, which began Saturday, crews of 300 to 400 radical volition cleanable and refresh nationalist spaces astir the city. That work volition include removing graffiti, weeds and litter from streets, sidewalks and parks, the City of Toronto said successful a quality release.

"Too often we person garbage that mightiness beryllium overflowing. The streets are sometimes … not successful [the] champion signifier and there's litter around," Chow said astatine an announcement Saturday. 

"That's wherefore we request to make a cleaner, safer metropolis for everyone." 

These cleaning blitzes volition hap for respective Saturdays implicit the adjacent 3 months, the quality merchandise said. 

The cleaning crews volition besides instal much than 600 caller garbage and recycling bins to high-usage parks. Chow said these bins volition person QR codes which radical tin scan to notify the metropolis erstwhile a bin needs to beryllium emptied. 

Crews volition besides behaviour heightened enforcement and clean-up of "illegal dumping hotspots," the city's quality merchandise said. 

WATCH | Business owners telephone for extremity to amerciable dumping astatine Scarborough plaza: 

Chow said the crews volition analyse who is liable for amerciable dumpings. 

"We volition get you, truthful don't dump your garbage successful a spot wherever you shouldn't be," she said. 

They will also support trees, marque repairs to potholes, motorcycle lanes and motorcycle rings, and repaint pavement markings, including crosswalks. 

The metropolis said it will use information to place neighbourhoods wherever cleaning blitzes are astir needed. 

"Crews volition resoluteness 311 work requests arsenic good arsenic applying an equity lens to prioritize cleaning and repairs successful historically underserved, low-income and susceptible communities wherever the metropolis typically receives less 311 work requests," the quality merchandise said. 

The metropolis said it is besides hiring up to 30 students to articulation summertime parkland cleaning teams and adding much custodial unit to support 21 outdoor pools.