Billions in flood damage this summer crippled GTA residents, but finally grabbed the attention of local politicians after Doug Ford abandoned municipalities   

In July 2013, municipalities across the Greater Toronto Area experienced what had long been characterized as a “100-year storm” – a weather phenomenon considered extremely rare, the type of event that for decades drew little concern from politicians and homeowners after the waters receded and the clean up was complete. 

Such apathy is no longer a luxury. 

A decade later, this July's flooding and then August’s second once-in-a-century storm in less than a month again wreaked hundreds of millions of dollars in damage throughout the GTA, with parts of Mississauga and Brampton, which are prone to flooding, particularly hard hit.

Video footage shows how the same areas hit by flooding more than a decade ago, were once again swamped this summer due to a lack of stormwater infrastructure meant to protect residents and businesses.

Eleven years after the 2013 flood that deluged large sections of the GTA, many of the same neighbourhoods experienced storms in July and August even more intense than a decade earlier. The total rainfall from the July storm combined with rainfall days before was 220 millimetres, approximately three times the average amount for the whole month of July, according to a new report to Peel Region council members.

More than 100 residents of the Tyndall seniors care home in Mississauga were evacuated in July, as both storms forced the city’s fire service to act quickly to save lives when people were stranded in cars and low-lying areas. Across Peel, more and more homeowners have expressed frustration after basements were swamped, sometimes twice, and the bill for repairs climbed into the tens of thousands of dollars.

Many are blaming local politicians and Doug Ford.

After the July storm, a resident named Rahul posted on X: “Flooding at home (basement apartment, all my gen can afford) and at my work here in Mississauga today. The impacts and damage are minor, the stress massive, 100% climate-driven and 100% Ford-f@#$ery.”

Startling videos showed that for many residents the damage was not so minor. 

In 2022, Ontario’s auditor general at the time, Bonnie Lysyk, published a stinging audit of the provincial government’s handling of flood risks. The PC government’s rushed suite of development-friendly legislation under Bill 23, designed to get 1.5 million new homes built across the province by 2031, was pushed through while the PCs scaled back protections against flood risks, providing insufficient funding for stormwater infrastructure and necessary data for flood mapping. She concluded the provincial government was failing to protect its 444 municipalities from flooding — a problem that would only be exacerbated by climate change and the PCs’ hyper-aggressive housing strategy.

In 2019, Ford cut about $4 million from the flood mitigation budgets of conservation authorities.

After the August flooding, with videos showing cars in front of homes submerged up to the passenger side window, resident Angela Grella posted on Facebook: “Going forward City planners have to start planning for such rainfall events.” She wrote that builders and governments should not be allowed to construct homes in areas known to be prone to flooding.

The Insurance Bureau of Canada estimates the July storm alone caused more than $940 million of damages to insured properties.

It has been estimated that the overall costs for this summer’s GTA storms could exceed $5 billion.

The Region of Peel’s report details some of its costs, pegged at more than $323,000 after the flooding impacted waste collection, some transportation operations and other services. Staff also warn about ongoing financial impacts that will be more clear once a severe weather event/wastewater system performance study is completed by the end of the year.

Residents and municipalities have been scrambling to address the reality of much more frequent severe storm events such as the one on August 17 which brought the highest recorded single-day of rainfall, 128.4 millimetres, at Pearson Airport. The total precipitation reported by Pearson for the month as of August 21 was 168.5 millimetres; 76 percent of the rainfall in the first three weeks of the month happened in a single day. 

This summer has been the wettest ever recorded at Pearson with 475.8 millimetres of rain as of the August 17 storm, breaking the previous record of 396 millimetres reported in 2008. By comparison, the average summer rainfall at Pearson, documented between 1991 and 2020, was 222 millimetres; more than half that amount fell on August 17.

The 2013 storm prompted GTA municipalities to rethink how they prepare for extreme weather. It laid bare the cracks in municipal stormwater systems that left communities drenched by the heavy rainfall, with many ill-equipped sewage systems backing up into basements. While Thursday’s report to regional council assures that several sewer system improvements have been made since then or are currently underway, this summer made it abundantly clear that current investments are not enough to keep up with aging infrastructure, as climate change only gets worse.

Over the last decade, the Region of Peel has renewed approximately 113.5 kilometres of local sanitary sewer infrastructure and invested $181.5 million into sewer pipe replacement and rehabilitation mostly in Mississauga and Brampton which have been flagged as two of the province’s most flood-vulnerable municipalities, with their density and increased urbanization compounding the flood risk.  

Mississauga and Brampton are among the  municipalities most susceptible to flooding in Ontario.

(mychoice.ca)

The Region did an analysis of its sewer system performance under extreme conditions following the 2013 flooding, which identified several areas of improvement in order to divert wastewater flows more efficiently. Capital work projects over the last ten years have included a new wastewater storage facility with a capacity of 15 million litres (to be completed in 2025); an upgraded trunk sewer along Derry Road from east of Bramalea Road to Creditview Road (expected to be completed and in service in 2027); and a sanitary sewer along Lakeshore Road from Jack Darling Park to Elmwood Drive to divert sewage from Mississauga’s G.E. Booth facility to the Clarkson facility, with construction expected to begin in early 2025.

“Improvements to the infrastructure and operations under the Region’s responsibility identified after the last major storm have been implemented or are in progress, which led to significantly fewer flooding issues compared to the storm event in 2013,” the report details. “Moving forward, staff will continue to review lessons learned and enhance stormwater drainage systems on Regional roads and wastewater systems to better protect and serve the communities in Peel.”

But will these measures be enough to mitigate future flood risk, which is expected to become more frequent and severe?

Urbanized cities like Brampton and Mississauga are more vulnerable to flooding, with larger concrete and road coverage. Increased water runoff from parking lots, homes, driveways and commercial structures, into parks, along roadways, basements and other low-lying areas has to be diverted or prevented through absorption into soil. 

“The volume of water exceeding the river's capacity can result in widespread damage to businesses, homes, parks, and recreational trails situated along the river's course,” the staff report explained. “This type of flooding is often exacerbated by saturated soil conditions, where the ground can no longer absorb additional water, leading to rapid runoff and elevated water levels.”

Meanwhile, failing infrastructure is costing residents millions. 

Thursday’s report reveals that since the July flood, a total of 97 tonnes of flood-related waste has been collected curbside and another 99 tonnes of flood-related waste has been brought to Peel’s community recycling centres by 494 residents. The Region also reported that as of August 14, just a few days before the second flood, Peel had received 105 property damage claims from residents and business owners, primarily from flooding in basements.  

Unfortunately for home and business owners now seeking compensation, the report states, “while the Region investigates and reviews the performance of the wastewater and Region Road systems, in response to the intensity of the rain and the local and private property stormwater systems, the Region does not acknowledge or admit liability.”

The economic costs of climate change from extreme weather events such as flooding are becoming more daunting. Earlier in 2024 the Insurance Bureau of Canada revealed that, for the second consecutive year, Canada exceeded $3 billion in insured damage from severe weather events, primarily from flooding. This year’s July flash floods in the GTA caused over $940 million in insured damage, according to the association. 

The Region of Peel has been making investments in its stormwater management, but summer flood events show it has not been enough to address the increasing impacts of climate change.

(Mississauga Fire and Emergency Services) 

In recent years, residents have been encouraged to mitigate flood damage inside their homes through subsidy programs introduced by the Region of Peel and the City of Mississauga. But these incentives, meant to help homeowners cover the costs of installing sump pumps and backwater valves to reduce basement flooding from heavy rains, have seen little uptake. 

Data from the City and Region show applications for these subsidy programs have declined over the last five years. As of the end of July, Mississauga had received 412 applications for the program since 2019. That year it accepted 121, but last year only 80 applications were received. In 2024 the City had received 84 applications for the program just over halfway through the year. The Region’s Back Water Valve Rebate Program has seen even less participation with only 53 applications received since 2020. Just ten of the subsidies were paid out in 2023, up from six in 2022. 

Also featured on this week’s agenda at the Region is a motion from Mississauga Councillor Sue McFadden requesting the Region’s subsidy program, which covers up to $700 for the cost of installation, be increased to $1,500 and that homeowners who have previously received a rebate from a basement flooding subsidy program be eligible for further rebates after ten years (the eligibility requirements under the current program do not allow a property owner to receive multiple rebates). The motion also requests the changes be retroactive to the July storm. 

The Region has retained Stantec Engineering to analyze flood-related call information, on-site flooding surveys, wastewater facility performance data, gauge adjusted radar rainfall, and wastewater flow data to evaluate Peel’s sewer system response to the July 16 and August 17 storms and identify where improvements need to be made. This is anticipated to be completed before the end of the year. Peel is also partnering with the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA) on a Road Flood Vulnerability Study to identify which of the Region’s culverts and bridges comply with the level of service performance targets criteria listed under the Ministry of Transportation, based on current and projected future rainfall. It will also examine which road segments meet or fail to comply with the performance targets. 

“This study will enable the Region to better understand risks to regional roads and watercourse crossings associated with climate change, provide information and insights that can be used as part of capital planning decision making, and help the Region minimize disruption to the public, emergency vehicles, and increase resilience to climate change,” staff explain. 

Not addressed in Thursday’s report, however, is what the future of the Region’s stormwater management system will look like after the Province divides up responsibilities over certain services currently overseen by the upper-tier municipality and passes them down to Mississauga, Brampton and Caledon. Earlier this year when the plans to dissolve the Region were scrapped, the PCs pivoted to a model where certain services would be downloaded to Peel’s lower-tier municipalities. Among them is water and wastewater as well as stormwater. 

This now leaves questions about what the Region and its lower-tier municipalities’ stormwater strategies and future funding will look like while uncertainty about the funding and management of stormwater infrastructure swirls at a critical time. 

The regional transformation would offload the responsibility and infrastructure onto lower-tier municipalities that do not have the financial resources, expertise or staff to manage the massive task of simultaneously protecting residents from climate change. 

A motion on Mississauga’s agenda this week from Councillor Stephen Dasko notes that the City of Mississauga has allocated $33.7 million in 2024 for stormwater improvements – with plans to invest 342.5 million over the next decade. It also highlights that since 2016, Mississauga has invested over $231.5 million in stormwater infrastructure, as well as a 10-year plan of an additional $340 million for ongoing upgrades and maintenance to enhance the City’s resilience against future storms. The Pointer has reported that an additional $30 million is required per year from 2024 to 2123 just to properly fund the City’s stormwater pipe program and maintain Mississauga’s aging stormwater pipes. None of these figures take into account the financial implications of future service delivery assumed from the Region.

The motion requests the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing include neighbourhoods in the vicinity of Little Etobicoke Creek in the Province’s ongoing flood assessment and “urge the Minister to take all necessary steps to immediately activate the Disaster Recovery Assistance for Ontarians (DRAO) program for the City of Mississauga.” 

It also asks that items not addressed in the upcoming staff report on the City’s flood mitigation efforts be expedited and identify projects that could be advanced with additional funding from upper levels of government and report back by October; and that staff report back on a stormwater charge program that could compensate residents up to $1,000 per household. 

Email: [email protected] 

Twitter: @mcpaigepeacock

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