Burlington city council approved a motion to provide $1,000 to residents whose homes were damaged in the flooding this week.
During a special meeting of council on Friday, councillors unanimously approved the motion for those residents who do not qualify for the Region of Halton Ex-gratia Grant. Ward 5 councillor Paul Sharman said the city has learned a lot in how to deal with a disaster since the 2014 flood.
“We had no data, we didn’t have an emergency procedure prepared, we were struggling,” Sharman said. “Today, we have a lot more information, a lot more discipline, and fortunately this was over fairly quickly.”
The $1,000 from the city comes from the Severe Weather Reserve Fund. The motion was quickly written up in council and passed without issue, as several councillors voiced their support for the idea.
The special meeting of council was on Wednesday to provide updates from the city, region, and the 407 on recovery and cleanup efforts.
In addition to the funding from the city, council and the Director of Transportation Services, Craig Kummer, agreed to suspend the 1 a.m. - 6 a.m. parking restrictions on residential streets in all wards until Aug 31 to help facilitate cleanup efforts.
“It’s going to be a very long time for a number of residents before they can consider themselves having recovered from this,” city manager Hassaan Basit said. “And the city will continue to be there. This is not the end of the ideation phase in terms of what we can do to help, there are small things. Just this morning parking exemptions were waived.”
City councillors were joined virtually by Christina Basil, vice president of communications and government relations for the 407.
Basil shared information about the berm that broke near Cavendish Drive, and the repair efforts that are already underway.
“We’ve created a path for the water to drain over the berm and out into the highway 407 yard ditch,” Basil said. “The pump has been working non-stop since water levels were contained within the creek.”
Basil added the berm – or noise barrier – is only there to reduce sound from the highway for the neighbourghood, and that an eight foot culvert allows water from Rambo Creek to pass under the barrier, and towards the QEW.
Basil also said the 407 has been in contact with some of the residents who were most impacted by the flood in the Cavendish neighbourhood. She says the highway organization is offering about a dozen families $2,000 cheques to aid with their cleanup and recovery.
As of July 18, Halton Region had received 416 calls to 311 to report flooded basements. That number is expected to continue to rise.
“We have to make sure our infrastructure is going to be capable of looking after us, as climate change increases the rainfall that we’re going to get,” Sharman said. “We need to have a future view, you’re going to be using that language all the time nowadays. We’re not thinking 20 or 30 years down the road, we run the risk of this happening every two years, and that’s not satisfactory to anybody.”
Council will reconvene on Aug 7 for further updates on the flooding and recovery efforts.
