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Even more pressing, says her son, was his mother’s wish to go and vote in Thursday’s provincial election, after she was snowed in during the advance polls.

Michael Morris, 58, said his mother’s Etobicoke driveway has had snow dumped at the base of it for the past five winters, although never as much as this year.

“It’s not the first time, but it’s the worst time,” he said of the mound that reaches about six feet at its highest point.

His mother uses various mobility devices, including a cane, walkers and a manual wheelchair — none of which could be used safely due to a lack of space and access around the snow mound, said Michael, who spoke to the Star on behalf of his mother.

Each day since Feb. 14 — the first day her driveway was blocked with snow — Michael submitted an official service request for snow removal through the city’s online 311 public assistance system. And, each day, he drove to his mother’s home, found a space to park on the street and snapped photos of the wall of snow to include in his service requests.

“I send them new pictures daily, because they issue a ticket number each time, and I’ve been checking the ticket numbers,” said Morris. “One of the tickets was closed because they investigated it and say the problem’s been fixed,” he said, noting nothing had changed and no snow removal work had been done.

As well as his 311 service requests, Michael said he had spoken on two separate occasions to the company tasked with sidewalk clearing in front of his mother’s home, catching them for quick conversation as they pass. Both times, he was told they could not help but were sympathetic, Michael said, adding the company called their own supervisor, who came to speak to him and who took his own photos to see if he could help with submitting a request.

Michael also contacted Mayor Olivia Chow’s office. Chow’s spokesperson, Zeus Eden, said, “We used an existing complaint to hopefully expedite work.”

In a statement emailed to the Star on Thursday evening, a spokesperson said the city had “deployed crews and equipment to clear access to this property,” adding work was continuing to address a high volume of service requests.

“We empathize with seniors — we know there is a gap, and the mayor has sent suggestions to the auditor general to get this cleared up,” said Eden.

“If you use a wheelchair, you have a path you need to take that you depend on to be accessible,” to get yourself food, medicine or otherwise out and about, said David Lepofsky, chair of accessibility for the Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance.

“When snow falls, it’s a headache for everyone, a pain to get around in; but for people with disabilities, it is a complete impediment,” he said. Lepofsky, who is legally blind, said people with disabilities who are shut in due to snow, “are left living like we all were at the beginning of the pandemic — afraid to go outside.”

Lepofsky said seniors with limited energy or who have balance issues are also shut in when city sidewalks aren’t passable, due to “real fears of falling and breaking bones or a hip, that, for seniors, can actually be life-threatening.”

Michael said his parents grew up in a country without the right to vote, so it is incredibly important to his mother that she does.

“My parents never missed an election. (My mother) only missed the mayoral byelection once in her entire lifetime,” he said, adding his mother’s parents, and in fact all of his grandparents, did not have the right to vote until they were in their 40s and 50s. “It means a lot because of that ... that all of us have that right.”