I live in northern Michigan. 25 F / -4 C is of course "cold", but it's not particularly problematic, you can under dress and it will be a fairly long time before you have problems. Down around 10 F / -12 C, you have to be a lot more aware.

And then if the regional/municipal governments have the equipment for it, a foot or two of snow a month really doesn't impact travel all that much (maybe for a few hours if there is a big storm).

I lived downtown by the path. I'd be surprised if there was a foot of snow total in the years that I lived there.

ok. The comment was about Toronto in general rather than just downtown.

Snowfall near the lake can be lower because of the mediated temperature. (Unlike south of the lake like in Buffalo were you can get high lake-effect snow). In a dense core, you can have very different patterns of accumulation due to road and building layout.

Winters can be sporadic. Last year's was bad. Year before was light.

This is last year: https://www.theweathernetwork.com/en/news/weather/severe/his...

What years were you there? I don't see how less than 'foot of snow total' is possible.

edit: These are the yearly totals (if the site's stats are to be believed). https://toronto.weatherstats.ca/charts/snow-yearly.html

Eyeball average puts it at like 100cm+