Better late than never when it comes to mechanical leaf collection, which was held up by the early snowstorm that buried us two weeks ago.

All signs of the Nov. 11 storm that dumped 13 centimetres of snow on the GTA have vanished, due to the merciful return of normal temperatures and dreary rain more typical at this time of year.

But evidence of its impact can still be found in parts of Etobicoke-York and Scarborough that enjoy mechanical leaf collection, which allows residents to pile their leaves along the curb for pickup, instead of bagging them.

Here’s where the outrage kicks in, at least for some people who don’t get the same service — and that would be in most areas — and resent that they have to bag their leaves when others don’t.

But areas that get it are among the most heavily-treed in the city. There are more leaves than anywhere else, so the city allows residents to pile them at the curb and sends a crew with a front-end loader and a dump truck to clean them up.

Collection usually starts in early to mid-November, but leaves heaped up along the curb were buried by the storm, leaving some residents wondering if the city was still coming, or if they’d be stuck with them. It’s happened before.

Eric Holmes, who deals with media for transportation services, emailed to say “the service is always subject to weather conditions (specifically snow) and this year, the early season snowfall on Nov. 11 delayed the start of the service.”

The collection schedule was revised (and can be found on the city website, toronto.ca, by typing ‘mechanical leaf collection’ into the search field at the top of the home page), adding that it is “again subject to change if there’s more snow.”

So they’re still coming at some point between now and mid-December, but anyone who wants their leaves to be picked up by mechanical collection should check the schedule and get them out to the curb right away.