$32M from Ottawa for anti-flood measures would be ‘huge’: mayor
The City of Windsor is hoping for $32.1 million in federal funds to help pay for a massive $89.3-million plan to protect Riverside and East Riverside from flooding. Landing the money would be “huge,” Mayor Drew Dilkens said Monday. Before the holidays, Windsor was given the go-ahead to apply to Infrastructure Canada’s Disaster Mitigation and Adaptation Fund as part of screening process. Staff are now preparing the final application, expecting a response in the spring.
The $2-billion fund pays up to 40 per cent of a municipality’s costs for projects that help “better manage the risks of disasters triggered by natural hazards.” These include floods, fires and droughts — events that are growing in frequency because of climate change, Infrastructure Canada says. Riverside was hard hit by se- vere rainstorms on Sept. 29, 2016, and Aug. 28, 2017. More than 220 mm of rain fell on each occasion, resulting in more than 9,000 reports of household flooding citywide and more than $200 million in insurance losses, though only 45 per cent of houses were covered by flood insurance.
The $89.3 million in projects were announced by the city in July as early measures from its Sewer Master Plan, expected to be completed this year. They include replacing and expanding sewers and fixing the roads on top of those sewers, providing new outlets for storm water to drain into the Detroit River, pumping station upgrades, storm water retention ponds and other measures to lessen the damage done by the big storms that have become more common in recent years due to climate change.
“It’s a massive plan, it’s going to take up to 10 years to do just because of the scope of the work,” Dilkens said. “It won’t happen overnight, but the sooner we can get started the sooner we can finish, which will provide a lot of relief to people in that (Riverside) area.” City council has included some money for the projects in its sixyear capital budget. Once Riverside and East Riverside are taken care of, the city will move on to other areas of the city, the mayor said. He said the city will likely be competing with many other municipalities applying for the CDMA funds, but he believes the city ’s application aligns perfectly with the goals of the government program. “We think we have a very good proposal,” he said. “We think we’ve done a lot of work in advance so the funds would hit the ground and be invested right away.”