Learn how to dispose of leaves properly, maintain the boulevard adjoining your property, report grass and weed concerns and find information about City maintenance responsibilities within the public right-of-way.
Place leaves that fall on your property in kraft paper yard waste bags and set them out on your regularly scheduled garbage collection day. Do not rake or blow leaves onto roads, sidewalks, ditches or culverts. Leaves on roads and sidewalks can create safety hazards and contribute to localized flooding. The City will continue to collect fallen leaves in the public right-of-way, such as those that fall on roads, in ditches or accumulate in culverts.
The City is no longer providing the Mechanical Vacuum Leaf Collection Program which enabled residents to rake leaves that had fallen on their property to the roadside for mechanical vacuum collection. The program was only available to a limited number of residents in Etobicoke, York and Scarborough. By aligning the service level to other parts of the city, this change will result in an estimated savings of $2.3 million per year, which will be redirected to other critical road maintenance activities such as pothole repairs and street sweeping.
Raking, blowing, placing or dumping leaves onto the sidewalk, ditches or roadway can create dangerous conditions, cause flooding on the roadway and could delay emergency services. Raking leaves onto sidewalks and the roadway is an offence under the City of Toronto Streets and Sidewalks by-law Chapter #743 (section 9) and could result in a $200 fine.
The City does not enforce complaints about leaves that collect on private property or blow from one property to another. There is no City bylaw that requires homeowners to remove leaves from their own property or from a neighbour’s property. You cannot file a complaint against your neighbour in this situation.
If a neighbour intentionally moves leaves onto another property using equipment such as a leaf blower or rake, this is considered a private civil matter and is not enforced by the City.
Property owners are responsible for maintaining the municipal boulevard adjoining their property.
This includes:
Property owners who do not maintain the adjoining boulevard may be subject to enforcement under Chapter 743 of the Toronto Municipal Code, including any costs incurred by the City to complete the required work.
The City does not provide grass cutting or weed removal services on private property.
Transportation Services maintains grassed areas within portions of the City’s road right-of-way, including:
Grass cutting and weed removal are generally carried out between May and November.
Service schedules vary based on weather conditions, operational requirements and available resources.
The City does not accept requests for additional mowing locations or additional grass cutting cycles beyond approved maintenance schedules.
Submit a service request for:
Most hydro transmission corridors in Toronto are maintained by Hydro One.
The City maintains and performs grass cutting and weed removal on certain sections of:
Maintenance schedules for these locations may differ from regular roadside grass-cutting operations.