Mayor Rob Ford's administration says it has plans to keep city services operating close to normal in the event of a strike or lockout of Toronto municipal workers.

Still, with roughly 6,000 outside employees off the job, there will likely be some service disruptions.

A spokesperson from the city manager's office, Jackie DeSouza, said the city is still hoping to come to an agreement with the workers' union but a contingency plan, which they won't make public yet, has been drawn up just in case.

If a strike or lockout happens it will be Toronto's first winter work stoppage in recent memory.

City councillor Gord Perks said he is concerned about what could happen if city and the union don't come to an agreement.

"I'm worried that this administration has a really radical conservative approach to labour relations and is going to throw this city into chaos," Perks told CTV Toronto.

Toronto's outside workers, whose contract expired December 31 and is still up for negotiation, are in charge of garbage collection, snow removal, rescuing animals and maintaining city skating rinks.

Local 416 also includes paramedics, social housing workers, water and wastewater specialists and parking lot attendants.

So what could the city look like if there is a strike or lockout?

Snow removal

Although 75 percent of Toronto's winter maintenance is contracted out, the other quarter is done by the city. Public works chair Denzil Minnan-Wong says the city will do it's best to make sure roads are safe.

"We will see some level of delays but we hope to get our plows out of the yard and to get our main roads and expressways cleared reasonably quickly," Minnan-Wong told CTV Toronto.

Torontonians could also see delays in EMS response times. If there is a labour disruption, EMS can reduce staffing levels to 85 per cent.

During the strike in the summer of 2009, controversy erupted over the staffing level requirement for paramedics, which was only 75 per cent at the time.

Garbage collection

Toronto could see a situation similar to that witnessed during the 2009 strike, although less smelly thanks to the cold weather. During the last strike, residents were asked to bring their garbage to dumpsites around the city.

Skating

Cross skating off the winter to-do list. City-run events and pools were shut down in the summer of 2009, which means rinks likely will be affected this winter.

Inside workers unaffected

There are some services, however, that won't be affected by a work stoppage. These include the TTC, police and fire services, Toronto long-term care homes and services, Toronto Public Library and Toronto Community Housing properties.