Making Toronto Look “Pretty” for the FIFA World Cup 2026. You Can Help Too.

In a recent news release on the City of Toronto website, Mayor Olivia Chow and Deputy Mayor Ausma Malik announced their commitment to working alongside hundreds of maintenance and cleaning staff to ensure that city streets are clear and ready to welcome thousands of residents and tourists for the upcoming games. As a Torontonian, you are invited to share your input as well. Read on to learn how you can actively contribute to making your city look great.

The initiative has already begun, and as the month progresses, crews will tackle various tasks, including removing graffiti, clearing weeds and litter, maintaining trees and turfgrass, installing and maintaining new waste bins, clearing catch basins, addressing illegal dumping hotspots, sweeping streets, boulevards, and laneways, repairing potholes and bike lanes, and repainting pavement markings, particularly crosswalks.

This initiative started in June 2025 to maintain clean public spaces across the city each year. Last year’s cleanup involved 2,000 staff and 1,100 vehicles across five cleaning blitzes held on Saturdays over three months.

As a result of last year’s efforts, significant achievements were made: 2,500 kilometers of roadway were swept, over 1,000 tons of debris were removed, 5,000 potholes were repaired, 20 kilometers of pavement markings were repainted, 260 tons of illegal dumping sites were cleared, 3,000 square meters of graffiti were removed, and 1,000 trees and their infrastructures were maintained.

For this year’s scheduled blitzes, the city aims to maintain these impressive figures.

“When our public spaces are clean, safe, and welcoming, everyone benefits,” stated Chow in a release. “Keeping Toronto Beautiful is not just about maintenance; it’s about taking pride in our city, improving our neighborhoods, and ensuring that people feel comfortable and connected in the places they live, work, and gather.”

The cleanup blitzes will also focus on popular public spaces ahead of FIFA.

Eight neighborhoods throughout the city will be selected for these cleaning blitzes. The selections are based on a combination of data from daily city crew patrols and 311 service requests.

This is where you come in. You can identify locations in need of attention by reporting issues through the 311 Toronto mobile app or online at https://bit.ly/3QRJipE (hold down the Control key as you click this link to reach your destination).

 *****