‘We’re holding on for dear life’: As temperatures warm and spring rains continue, concerns mount about flooding in Mississauga

Spring. 

A time of renewal and change. 

For many, the long anticipated transition from the depths of winter to the splendor of summer, can’t come soon enough. 

But for some Mississauga residents, spring is a season of fear. 

April showers—which arrived ahead of schedule this week—bring with them the threat of widespread flooding. Every time the skies darken and raindrops slicken the sidewalks, a heavy sense of dread settles over many areas of Mississauga.

The Dixie-Dundas neighborhood has been ravaged by flooding for more than a decade. The memories of the two, once-in-a-century storms that inundated homes across the area in a four-week span during the summer of 2024 are still very fresh–the waterstained basements and delayed insurance payments are still being dealt with. 

Julia Budahazy has lived with her family in the bucolic west side of Applewood Acres, since 2008. She has seen four calamitous floods come inches away from her house. She has witnessed the ruinous impacts the floods have had on her neighbours.

“I feel for those people. You see the moving pods in front of the driveway and it's just disastrous, and so disruptive.” 

Every heavy rainfall she watches as the ditch across from her home slowly fills with water. The culvert meant to carry the water away gets clogged with leaves and debris the City failed to clear. She has raised the issue with municipal officials, but each time they come to inspect, she’s left with a notice saying "there's nothing we can do.”

“It raises huge levels of anxiety when we have [weather] events that happen. We watch, and we are bracing for one of them to happen in our properties,” she said. Budahazy has installed water pumps in her basement to stop any excess water and sewage from submerging the bottom of her house, but is aware her neighbours don’t share the same luxuries as her. She is also lucky the house sits slightly upon a higher elevation than those adjacent to her.

“We're just holding on for dear life, waiting to see if a flood is going to hit us. We have been very, very lucky, but we don't know if it's going to hit,” 

She feels frustrated by the lack of attention this issue received from City officials.

“It's definitely not a priority for them, it looks like it is not, and if there are other priorities that are more important,” she said.

Budahazy was left perturbed after the city has yet to implement flood mitigation measures after she watched how her neighbours' lives were inundated after the flooding that rocked those abutting to her, affecting over 30 homes that she saw.

“I don't think people were prepared. But even if they were prepared, what are they going to do? What are we going to do? Because as a society, we're not equipped to deal with weather,” said Budahazy, adding the City needs to go further to address the risk of flooding in the Applewood Acres area. 

“Basically it's always like somebody's waiting for the shit to hit the fan before something happens with any of these issues. Somebody needs to do something, because how many times are these people going to end up getting flooded?”

As the meltwater from the heavy winter snowfall saturates the ground, it raises the threat of flooding as the soil is too waterlogged to absorb the heavy spring rainfall.

(Gail Feldman/Facebook)

While residents in Applewood Acres have expressed repeated concerns to the city, there are other areas of the city also waiting for action. 

Those who live close to the intersection of Dundas Street East and Dixie Road were the hardest hit by the 2024 floods that submerged cars and businesses, stranding over two dozen cars with passengers inside. It was an all too familiar sight for longtime residents of the area who have seen similar flooding in 2005, 2009 and 2013.

The Intersection of Dundas street and Queen Frederica Drive during a 2013 flood (top) and the same intersection in 2024. 

(YouTube/Reddit)

The devastation from the record-level rain in 2024 triggered the City of Mississauga to launch the Dixie-Dundas flood mitigation project to better protect the residents from future heavy rain events—something becoming more common as a result of climate change. The project is currently moving ahead on an accelerated timeline to alleviate the flooding caused by Little Etobicoke Creek overflowing its banks, but with spring right around the corner, it seems at least for this year, residents could be on their own. Preliminary work on the project is underway, but construction on the major infrastructure changes is not expected to begin until next year. The project includes re-construction and realignment of the Little Etobicoke Creek Valley, and full replacement of the Dixie Road and Dundas Street Bridges. 
 

A map of the flood prone areas around the City of Mississauga. The Dixie-Dundas neighbourhood sits in a low-lying area and often sees flooding when Little Etobicoke Creek overflows its banks.

(Credit Valley Conservation)

“The timeline is an aggressive timeline,” Scott Perry, the City’s manager of Stormwater assets and programming, told the Stormwater Committee on February 17 following several questions from committee members on the project timeline. 

Last year, after backlash from councillors and residents, the original timeline for completion of 2034 was accelerated to approximately 2028. 

It still means residents will be waiting at least two years for this construction to be completed and be afforded the protections it promises. It left some committee members frustrated. 

“Do we not have a schedule for this project? I can't believe that we don't at least have an ambitious schedule or a schedule that they're attempting to meet…I would have thought it was a simple question,” committee member Paul Bunyard said. 

“I think residents will feel when the major construction is ongoing and some of that re-channelization of the creek is done, that's when that protection will be available to them. I can't put a specific date and time on that,” Perry told the committee. “We're going through with the project now and design. There's lots of different risks and elements that you've seen in the memo. So it's too early to say exactly when that time will be, but we're working very intently on proceeding as fast as we can.”

“The thing that I'm going to ask is why on earth does that take so long? Why does everything take so long? With the amount of tax that we pay, our public servants should be doing a better job. That's their job. We go to work every day and we do our jobs,” Budahazy said. 

City officials say in the interim, a temporary floodwall beside the Little Etobicoke Creek has been installed to protect the most at risk homes, with additional improvements to the storm water drainage system including upgrades to priority locations, inlet improvements and enhanced inspections underway.

A temporary floodwall installed along Little Etobicoke Creek to block floodwaters should the creek overflow its banks.

(City of Mississauga)
 

According to a February staff report, further archaeological investigations along the river valley are planned for the spring, which will include engagement with First Nations communities. 

Engineering consultants are conducting a number of field investigations including topographic surveys, geotechnical engineering investigations, utilities surveys and ecological inventories, all of which will inform the ongoing detailed design for the project.

It is fully funded, which offers some level of security for residents. 

In 2025, the federal government approved the project budget for $24.2 under the Canada Housing Infrastructure Fund, while the province additionally provided funding of $24.4 million under the Municipal Housing Infrastructure program, providing $48.6 in funding assistance. 

As of 2025, Mississauga has invested over $265 million in stormwater improvements since 2016, committing an additional $311 million through 2034.

The climate mitigation spending comes as the climate crisis is placing significant strain on municipal budgets. 

In 2022, a report from the Financial Accountability Office of Ontario warned that extreme climate related rainfall could cost municipalities an additional $700 million annually just to maintain the already existing stormwater systems in place, warning without immediate upgrades, infrastructure costs could rise 27 percent overall.

The risk is causing many insurance companies to rethink their coverage for homes in flood-prone aras. 

Applewood Acres, Lisgar and Rathwood are already seeing many residents reporting insurance providers are cancelling flood coverage, leaving homeowners to bear the brunt of any future flooding damage.

According to the Insurance Bureau of Canada, roughly 1.5 million homes are already in high-risk flood zones that prevent them from getting adequate insurance.

In February 2024, the Quebec-based firm, Desjardins Group, said that due to the rising impact of climate change, it would no longer offer new mortgages on properties in areas where there's a five percent chance of flooding in a given year.

To help residents, the City has launched two financial relief programs to support those impacted by flooding. Residents can apply for a rebate of 50 percent of the cost of their home upgrades up to a maximum of $3,000. Eligibility is based around being a registered owner of a detached home, semi-detached home, duplex, or townhouse, and not a corporation or business entity; have no outstanding taxes or fees owed to the city; and experienced flood damage to their residence on or after July 8, 2013. 

The City also created the Basement Flooding Prevention Rebate, which provides up to $7,500 for eligible improvements like sump pumps or backwater valves.

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