By Staff
August 12, 2014
BURLINGTON, ON
When the politicians met with the city residents who were up to their knees in water in their homes Burlington MPP Eleanor McMahon said the city is made up of generous people and she urged the corporate sector to begin to help out as quickly as possible. “These are your customers” said McMahon and they need your help.
It is homes like this that are going to need support. How long will it be before they see any financial support?
The city has to pass a piece of legislation advising the province that they are seeking support.
It’s all time consuming. Everything should be place by Thursday noon after city council meets in a Special Session that morning.
Burlington Hydro Electric Inc. made a donation of $30,000
Newalta donated $10,000
The Burlington Community Foundation donated $15,000
Literally hundreds of individuals have made donations as well.
The United Way, which created the Disaster Relief Fund, is using their web site to collect funds. Anyone can use the safe, secure web site to make a donation.
The city had more than two months’ worth of rain fall within 24 hours. Homes have been flooded and destroyed, families are stranded and resources are limited.
The need is urgent.
- Donate Online, by clicking HERE (please write BURLINGTON FLOOD in the comments box)
- By Phone 905-635-3138
- By Email uway@uwaybh.ca
- In Person 3425 Harvester Rd, Unit 107, Burlington
The city is going to request the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing to declare the City of Burlington a “disaster area” for the purposes of the public and private components of the Ontario Disaster Relief Assistance Program (ODRAP);
And further, should the Minister declare a disaster area regarding the private component of ODRAP, Council will immediately, under the authority of ODRAP, appoint volunteers to a Disaster Relief Committee to administer ODRAP.
The request the city is making to the province has two parts. A public request and a private request.
How does a household clean up a mess like this? Mayor Rick Goldring will know – his home was flooded – there was a reported three feet of water on his basement.
The private money the city wants is money that will get given to citizens that need help. That money will not flow as fast as the the water that flooded their basements.
A number of things has to happen before private citizens get to see any money. The city has to create a fund raising arm. That has been done – the Burlington Hamilton United Way will serve as the bank for the fund raising. The link to send the United Way funds is above – be generous.
With is in place to province can then approve a Disaster Relief program that will aid private citizens. No one gets any money quite yet. The city has to appoint a Disaster Relief Committee. The members of this Committee cannot come from the communities that are affected. No word from city hall on who these people are likely to be.
What this means is that public provincial funds will be going to the city to repair city property that was damaged. In the Staff Report that will go to Council they said: “Expenses continue to be incurred for cleanup. However, further expenses will be realized as the repairs could take months to complete and debris cleanup is expected to extend for two to three weeks. City staff will report back to Council on the impacts of the storm to the 2014 operating and capital budgets. This is the second significant weather event that the City has had to respond to within the past eight months. An ice storm which occurred on December 21 to 22, 2013 also caused significant damage to property in Burlington.”
For the estimated 2,000 private properties that suffered damages, the property owners are required to seek coverage first from their insurance provider under the private component of ODRAP. Most homeowner policies will not cover floodwater that comes across land.
What people haggling with their insurance companies and still trying to get trades people in to repair damage is this: How much of the funds raised will get into the hands of the individuals suffering severely. We know of one lady who walked through a neighbourhood where the devastation was severe asking if she could take some of their dirty laundry home and wash it for them.
If the private component is put in place, that is the funds that will go to people whose homes were flooded, the municipality must appoint a Disaster Relief Committee. The Disaster Relief Committee will be a volunteer committee supported by a program manager. The Committee must engage in fundraising as a requirement of the private component. The Province tops up the funds raised by the Disaster Relief Committee to the amount that is needed to pay eligible claims at 90% up to a maximum of 2:1.
It should be noted that the fundraising component cannot be in the form of a contribution from the municipality, it must come from the community. All locally raised funds must be expended first before provincial funds are provided. The Committee will be responsible for reviewing and administering private claims.
Some people plowed through it all. For many people there was more water than they could handle.
Not everyone is going to agree with that last sentence.
On a ward by ward basis – a fair question is – what have they done for you lately? Aldershot was not hit, Ward 2 didn’t suffer any flooding. No word yet on ward 3 but wards 4 and 5 took a beating. Nothing on ward 6 yet either.
All of this is complex and confusing. We will follow up on what we have learned and do our best to keep you informed, which is a lot more than you are getting from city hall.
We will listen carefully to what gets said at city council Thursday morning.
