Twenty years ago, many Toronto streets were buried by mountainous heaps of snow.
A few opted for skis as a mode of transportation through the city. Some trudged precariously, while others hunkered down until the wrath of Mother Nature subsided.
Roughly 118 centimetres of snow fell during the first half of January 1999.
Mel Lastman had been newly elected as the first mayor of the amalgamated City of Toronto and went on to lead the city from 1998 to 2003.
Now 85, the former mayor of Canada’s most populous city opened up about what led him to make the call that garnered coast-to-coast headlines for Toronto.
“We will not allow this city to be closed down if we can possibly help it,” Lastman told reporters during the tumultuous period of Toronto’s snowmageddon.
His decision to call in the cavalry also provided ample fodder for comedians. Though, two decades later, it is one he stands by.
“I will always and I have always been safe rather than sorry,” he said in an interview with Global News.
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A total of 438 soldiers from Petawawa, Ont., and a crew of 100 from Prince Edward Island made the trek to aid the city. While Lastman made the call to request assistance, he said calling in the army was actually his wife’s idea.
“I just laughed and I went into the office and I called for my driver, who was just in the other room,” he recollected. “I said: ‘Take me through the streets of Toronto.'”
It was that drive that prompted a change of heart. Lastman said he phoned Art Eggleton, defence minister at the time, to request help.
“What I saw was cars parked on this side, cars parked on that side and two ruts in the middle. There was no way — no way an ambulance or a fire truck could get in,” he said.
Bison armoured vehicles were brought in to help in case first responders had issues reaching people in need.
“I know I did the right thing, and if you know you did the right thing, nothing can bother you,” Lastman said.
Environment Canada senior climatologist David Phillips believes calling in the troops was warranted.
“I think we should have called the Navy because when all that snow melted, there were puddles all over the city and there were roofs that caved in from not only the weight of the snow but also the water that was flowing,” he said. “It was a month of weather terror.”
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