Toronto Hydro warned customers about pending price hikes after the company’s CEO revealed it’s costing the company about $1 million a day to clean up the city after a devastating ice storm last week downed trees and wires and left thousands in the dark.

By the time the cleanup efforts are complete, the ice storm could cost Toronto Hydro about $10 million.

Customers of the service will likely see those costs reflected in their bill, said Toronto Hydro CEO Anthony Haines.

Haines told reporters Sunday afternoon that management was going to work hard to minimize the costs downloaded to their customers but unfortunately, a price increase is likely inevitable.

“We just don’t have $10 million lying around,” he said.

Haines and Toronto Mayor Rob Ford did have some good news for residents, saying the worst is over as less than 3,000 people remain without power in the city.

Late last night, Hydro officials said about 16,000 customers remained without power, down from 300,000 at the height of the outage which first struck Toronto and the GTA on Dec. 21.

While some had their power restored, many in Scarborough and midtown Toronto -- the two hardest hit areas in the city -- said they were still waiting for access to heat and hot water.

Ford said he has called a special emergency meeting of city council for Jan. 10 where councillors will make a decision to formally ask the province for disaster relief funds. He said he would take the next couple of weeks to determine just how much the city needs.

The city’s emergency preparedness budget was significantly depleted this past summer when parts of the city experienced severe flooding.

Ford stood by the fact that he never declared the city to be in a state of emergency after it was hit by the ice storm, saying all officials agreed that it was not necessary.

“It wouldn’t have sped up the process,” he said. “We would not have gotten money any faster.”

Haines and Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne have all publicly said calling a state of emergency would not have sped up their efforts.

Both Haines and Ford stopped by a Toronto Hydro facility early Sunday morning to thank a crew who worked tirelessly overnight to help restore power.

Ford and Haines said they could see the end of the outage in sight and hoped to have all power restored in days.

“We are almost standing on the finish line,” Haines said.

The men arrived at the facility at 7 a.m., just as the night crew ended their shift.

“I just want to thank the workers that have worked all night and thank those going out right now,” he told CP24. “There are 200 (hydro) trucks out right now and there were 200 out yesterday. Everyone is bending over backwards to get the power back on.”

Ford also thanked hydro crews that came from Ottawa and Windsor to help relieve the pressure on Toronto workers.

The mayor also touched on the provincial government’s announcement yesterday about compensation for flood victims.

Wynne said Sunday that the government is trying to determine how to put a process into place where disadvantaged families who lost food in the storm could be compensated for their groceries.

Officials are still trying to iron out the details of the plan, which would include gift certificates from Loblaw grocery store, Wynne said.

Ford said unfortunately, the city can’t afford to do the same.

“If the province wants to compensate people for lost food that’s great,” he said. “We are not in the position to that right now. I’d love to help them out.”

Meanwhile, melting ice continued to pose a threat to both workers and pedestrians as warmer temperatures caused ice blocks to shift and crash to the ground below.

On Saturday police blocked off Yonge Street between College and Gerrard streets because of sheets of ice falling from a highrise in the area. The area remained closed until about noon Sunday.

Several motorists complained Saturday about having their windshields broken from ice that had torpedoed off other vehicles on the road.

Hydro crews warned that there could be more outages if ice falls on a live wire.

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