MTO investigating if late contractors led to snowy, icy QEW

WATCH: The province’s Minister of Transportation Stephen Del Duca still has no answers on why plows and salt trucks were late to clear the QEW.

TORONTO – The Ministry of Transportation (MTO) is looking into whether contractors who were supposed to be salting and plowing the QEW Wednesday were an hour late getting started.

Five centimetres of snow began falling on the Greater Toronto Area Wednesday afternoon about an hour before rush hour started.  Private contractors responsible for a stretch of the QEW near Oakville were supposed to be prepping the roads for the incoming snow but, Minister of Transportation Steven Del Duca said Thursday, they may have been late.

“What I understand, specifically around yesterday afternoon and evening, it’s possible that a couple, in one particular area, affecting the QEW, that some of the salters and plows might have gone out about an hour late from the time they were supposed to depart,” Del Duca told reporters Thursday.

The ministry is investigating and Del Duca said if the contractor didn’t meet the requirements of its contract, the company could face stiff penalties.

The MTO contracts out road clearing operations across the province to private companies. The contractor, Carillion, has not responded to requests for comment.

Though the ministry has not finished investigating, the opposition is ready to pin the blame for bad roads squarely on the Liberal Party. NDP leader Andrea Horwath said the Liberals signed the contracts with the private companies and are responsible for the outcomes.

“The bottom line is the government is responsible for those contracts, for making sure the people of Ontario are safe on the highways that the maintenance and the snow removal is being done appropriate and adequately, so absolutely the failure rests straight on the backs of the government,” she said.

And Jim Wilson, the interim leader of the Progressive Conservative Party told reporters at Queen’s Park he doesn’t think the contractors would risk losing their work on the first day snow fell in the GTA. That being said, if the contractors did do something wrong, it’s the Liberals problem.

The government reviewed much of its winter road maintenance problems in March after similar complaints sprung up last year.  Contractors had been complaining they weren’t being given enough money to fulfill provincial requirements. So the government spent more money on equipment: nearly $15 million for new plows in Ontario and more inspectors to check on the work the contractors are doing.

But Wilson suggested much of that money was spent on spin. “The money they put, just about half of it was used for bureaucracy and a new communications plan to convince people the roads aren’t in bad shape,” he said.

– With files from Alan Carter