By Pepper Parr
July 18th, 2024
BURLINGTON, ON
During the long meeting during which members of Council struggled to develop a process and procedure that would be used to communicate with the public on the steps being taken to keep people fully informed.
How much money will it take to prevent floods like this when heavy rain hits the city?
So far there has been one message from the city and a note from ward 4 Councillor Shawna Stolte.
Ward 4 Councillor Shawna Stolte
Stolte did something else; she tossed out an idea that the Mayor grabbed onto quickly.
“ I want to toss something out there for the public and this committee for council to consider.
“We are elected to make decisions on behalf of the community, but there comes a time when there are some decisions that may need to go back to the community. And I just want to toss out the idea of the possibility of us requesting from staff to work on a report that would show us exactly what that number would look like for us to repair our water infrastructure system in order to try to prevent this from happening again, and bring that number to the public, possibly in the form of a referendum at the next election and just see if people, a majority of the public, are willing, more than willing, to take on the financial cost of what it’s going to take to ensure that our flooding infrastructure is updated.
“With a well-researched Staff report we could take to the public and let them decide.”
Referendums are one way of focusing public interest. The referendum has to be approved by the province and there are some very tight rules as to when they can be run and how they are interpreted.
I had to reread a sentence twice in this article where Shawna says we should have staff work on a report to see how much it would cost “to repair our water infrastructure in order to try and prevent this happening again” This did happen again July 15,2024 after the devastating flood Aug 4,2014 where 3000 homes were flooded in Burlington. Ten years to make this a priority. Ten years of neglecting to address this. Now because of bad planning and spending of tax dollars on nice to have’s you are asking the already overburdened residents of Burlington to pay to fix our water infrastructure? If I as a homeowner finds my roof needs repair, I fix it and cancel the family holiday. This does not need a staff report. This needs competent people at City Hall to spend our tax dollars on needs, not wants.
The City issues a climate crisis statement, but does nothing really serious about it in planning for the future. They have no clue what climate change means, and so the planning growth mania continues to exponentially accelerate the forcing that is heating up the the atmosphere, and driving climate change.
A forever ignored important economic issue relates to climate change and the insurance industry, or more generally the forms of risk management, via the increased cost of risk.
The data used for risk calculations, for example the 1 in 100 year flood, is based on historical data records. Statistical probability distributions and standard deviations of rainfall and flooding events are typically calculated for risk management purposes using historical data.
This calculation is only accurate if variability for the insured or project planning will be the same as during the historical period period.
This is not fact, but is exactly the opposite and getting worse.
As a topical example, the insurance industry is having huge problems on many risks, and many places and is taking action, regarding natural hazards and risks, regarding, for example, our present problem which is rainfall and flooding risk and effects.
Actions include higher premiums, or cancellation of coverage. In some cases better data on risk calculation, based on realization of the of the reality of a changing climate and the weather that is driven by said changes. This goes to the heart of the why the the insurance industry even exists. Accurate risk data is at the heart of insurance viability.
The reality of climate change is expressed and observed as an increase in the range or variance – new extremes – in the range of recorded events of interest.
In other words, the changes in the course of natural processes we are experiencing, observing and measuring, are results of the influence of the acceleration, or increased forcing, of the integrated climate system (atmosphere) we are observing.
The continued acceleration (forcing) of the atmosphere, modelled in coordinate systems used for mathematical description for climate, shows results in trajectories that are curved or non-linear. If we predict with no consideration of the acceleration, what we predict will be less than what we will actually observe.
What we are observing is an increase in the range or variance – new extremes – in the range of recorded events of interest. There are many manifestations of increased uncertainty in the scenario of continuing the acceleration of the forcing of the climate system by the growth mania trajectory, the Council led by the Mayor has put us on.
They have demonstrated they have no clue of understanding what they are doing, what the costs are and how to hide it from the taxpayers, and what the physical consequences are, and what to do about it.
The least of of our problems are the and rain event now upon us, and we don’t even know the extent of the damage and what needs fixed in the least.
Some marvelous comments and suggestions here.
I particularly like the observation that Burlington has failed in the Preventative Maintenance of said culverts and storm sewers. Makes our decision-makers culpable in some regards.
This venue should be mandatory reading for City Hall staff.
The dozen or so residents who’ve commented here–and at no cost to them but their experience, common sense and most of all time.
They deserve the jobs of at least half + of City Staff!
With respect, it is the same blah blah from Council and City time and time again when it comes to Burlingtonian matters especially emergency and/or life altering matters.
That’s great that Shawna is asking the question about how much Taxpayers wish to shell out for an upgrade but for me the entire mess of this begs the question, why Council is frivolously spending taxpayer dollars for things like artwork around town and neighbourhood parties to name but two things we know are on the lengthy list of flowery feel good wishes instead of important NEEDS for Burlington to FUNCTION.
Burlingtonians dealt with a flood back in 2017…why is Council still behind the 8 ball?
I hope Marianne and Council read our comments and take note so thart a serious conversarion will take place WITH residents involved. Burlington’s lack of infrastructure plus the smattering of hodge podge development all around Burlington will continue to put us all in harms way., specificallynwith flood mitigation.
Council, for the love of Burlington, stop spendng taxpayers’ dollars on your wants and instead spend on the needs.
CouncilI also.encourage you to have a TOWN HALL meeting and during the evening so residents, who work a 9-5 job, can attend. Give Burlingtonians an opportunity to have a convo.
If you havent noticed, dear Council, Burlingtonians are upset-you can read it on social in their comments and Ive certainly heard it around town. No photo opp or your narrative will help.
Seriously, have a town hall and truly listen to the good, bad and ugly from Burlingtonians regarding your decisions you make/dont make which have lasting ramifications for our beloved city
Ps….what’s the current tally of Bateman?
And let’s add to that the points we have been telling council ( and the province !)for 4 years now- “ Don’t build on a flood plain- Millcroft”…. 10 years from now (or less!) when yet ANOTHER flood hits and water accumulation in houses is worse than this year or 2014- someone may ask “ why did anyone in their right mind decide that building homes on a natural stormwater management floodplain system was a good thing!? Yes we have a LOT of infrastructure repair to undertake but let’s start thinking PREVENTION rather than constantly paying for stupidity (defined as ignorance, apathy or both?!)
Agree with everyone. Prioritize critical NEEDS vs. WANTS and learn to say no to unnecessary spends. Learn from past mistakes so that these types of situations can be proactively handled without burdening tax payers due to lack of foresight and planning.
The public encourages increased spend on infrastructure like roads, reducing congestion and proactively invest to fight the risks associated with climate change. But STOP spending on beautifying civic square, street art, painting sidewalks, multiple new community centres, funding charities that should be self funded and there are many more examples to choose from. These should not be on the list at this time until we fix our infrastructure needs and priorities. Put these things on hold and prioritize critical infrastructure needs.
Layering more and more taxes on homeowners is the “easy way” not the “right way” to manage a budget and is pushing us to give new meaning to unaffordable housing. Continuing in this vein shows that you are not connected with the community climate and the financial challenges we are all facing. Make the tough decisions and ease- don’t increase our tax burden .
I will ask Pepper how to upload our City’s Stormsewer Report of 2019. It is quite comprehensive. Our Staff did a good job BUT the question I have is did our Council follow through? As I have been very involved with files that have been delayed or ignored, my confidence is not there. We have been waiting on Zoning, Grading, Flood Plain Development Bylaw improvements. A promise for a Short Term Accommodation Bylaw for May 2020 is still mute yet we await significant high rise condo. builds across Burlington. What will those become … affordable housing? At each of the recent meetings, I went directly to engineering staff of the multiple companies and asked what flood preventions would be put in place.
We have been asking for infrastructure support since the flood of 2014. Many Delegations have been brought forward to Council. In my case our Council has several members who have visibly laughed at me. Then there is the fact that delegates with storm-sewer data and infill flood (knock down build data), creek and conservation data, flood plain data has all been ignored. Surveys though … let’s have one on how disillusioned, disappointed and saddened we are for our neighbours and communities who are struggling with this round of flooding. I feel thoroughly disillusioned that anything at all will be done. Promises, broken promises keep me in the loop of why bother yet yesterday when neighbours came to my home or contacted me or my BNFF (best neighbourhood friend forever), we found ways to help our neighbours bail sh$t out of their basements and mine too. The personal costs to those impacted by this flooding and sewer issue (in my case) is beyond sad. It is tragic. Let’s continue to support each other.
Oh right, won’t give up their legacy items or abide by legislation, rather than have the will of council prevail. Then Stolte has the nerve to pass the buck to the public in terms of doing what we elected them to do, eight years too late at an exponential increase in cost.. All at a very good compensation rate and sporting fancy titles to impress anyone they hope will hire them after their disastrous eight years.
Not a chance, you get more than enough from us already, if you can’t manage on that then move aside and let someone else take charge, talk about never letting a disaster go to waste.
Council is exactly correct – “We are elected to make decisions on behalf of the community”.
I only wish they would openly suggest ways to save and or make decisions to save $$. I only hear where they want to spend more money.
Why can’t they make decisions like many Burlington citizens must make evey day – if I spend $$ on this, where do I make cuts”
I find the suggestion of “with a well-researched staff report we could take to the public and let them decide” an interesting approach.
I don’t remember a suggestion of having a referendum to decide about the purchase of Robert Bateman High School and the cost to refurbish it.
I don’t remember a suggestion of having a referendum on the exorbitant cost to redo Civic Square.
Perhaps the funds designated for only these two not really necessary projects should have gone to upgrading the failing infrastructure that impacted residents a few years ago and now has again become a major problem for these same homeowners. Some without flood insurance because of their previous claim.
A simple common sense approach would have been for the city to remove or mulch all the dead leaves and trees instead of waiting for them “to compost on their own”. Obviously a cost saving suggestion that was implemented that has come back to haunt the city and impacted the lives of some residents.
As I have been told on many occasions “there does not seem to be a lot of common sense around these days”.
Our politicians need to look at facts and data before making such proclamations. Infrastructure like storm water is designed based on 1 in 100 year events.
This means that the engineer looks at rainfall records dating back 100 years ago and uses that for the basis of design calculations. (As an aside it does not mean that similar events can not happen sooner or more frequent).
The standard for this is Hurricane Hazel which hit Toronto in 1954 which dumped 200 mm of rain in a 24 hour period.
https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/hurricane-hazel
On Tuesday we had 75 mm of rain. This was not a 1 in 100 year event.
https://www.msn.com/en-ca/weather/topstories/burlington-neighbourhood-overwhelmed-as-torrential-rain-floods-streets-yards-homes/ar-BB1q6ATW?
On Monday we had 80 mm of rain. This was not a 1 in 100 year event.
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/torrential-rain-inundates-southern-ontario-195907656.html
Even if we add the two days together, its still far from a 1 in 100 year event.
So what gives?
While having a quick cup of coffee I pulled up one of the many online calculations of design for 100-year events to mitigate flooding by the use of culverts, but I would bet a sizable amount that the Burlington system was more than adequate: A purposeful detour of my daily walk to inspect the southern portion of Ranbo Creek and its bridges told me all I needed to know, ‘Maintenance’ I won’t go into the specifics but the culvert’s banks and beds over time have been reduced by the lack of a preventive maintenance schedule and any of you out there that have ever been involved in any industry knows that P.M. schedules save money over the long run (again this you would either know or not know) throwing money at a problem never works. p.s. By the way I must appologise if you can understand this comment I didnt take bafflegab in school.
and if you have a love of calculating things you can use this link to design your own culculvert,
https://engineeringdiscoveries.com/how-to-calculate-the-size-diameter-of-culvert-for-the-100-year-peak-flow/
How about starting with cancelling the Civic Square project and redirecting the funds to water mitigation.
Unfortunately Joe they cannot redirect it as that would have been very helpful it would have to be returned. However maybe just maybe council can make a case, due to homeowners can only obtain flood insurance once that it is needed to support residents. We still do have to do the original Civic Sq. planned and budgeted work to meet legislated standard but that should not be more than 1.5 of the 7.6. Further we should put any luxury items on hold until they figure out full cost of putting the Flood causes rights.As Michael said this was not a 1 in 100 year event. Rather a council that failed to prioritize as it should.
Oh, I get it. City officials will work up the plan, tabulate the costs, and then we’ll divide it by the number of Burlington residents, and just tack it onto their municipal tax bill….kind of like the levy we pay for JBMH. Then we can jack up taxes an additional 1%, 2%, 3%, on top of the 5-8% the City is already planning to hit us with. Just pass it onto the taxpayer.
Hang on though. Weren’t we all told this week that the Region had previously invested $120 million into flood abatement measures? Where did all that money go? And didn’t I just see Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow on television yesterday say she is asking the federal government for additional funding for flood abatement? What about pursuing that avenue?
To be clear: we have old infrastructure south of the QEW. We all get it! But shoe-horning more developments such as the Appleby/Fairview development and Opal Court will simply exacerbate an already serious problem. If anyone should be paying for flood abatement it should be the Ford government! Their idiotic intensification agenda has worsened this situation; ergo, he and his development cronies should be ponying up the costs for prevention.
Instead of planning a referendum maybe Council should be pounding on the door of our invisible, eerily silent and nondescript MPP, “Natalie Whatshername”, and asking her to take a lead on getting flooding abatement funding from her boss. Olivia Chow manages to successfully squeeze monies out of both the provincial and federal governments for transportation and all sorts of things, and she’s a New Democrat!
The flooding created a lake on Sprucehill Ave. It was not due to poor infrastructure. It was due to leaves, sticks and sand blocking the sewer grates. Neighbours used shovels to clear the grates and the water disappeared down the sewers. If the street sweeper came by on a regular basis, flooding would have been minimal or non existent. The City needs to address the real problem for each area, not assume what the problem is and spend needlessly as a whole.
First, we are thinking of, and acting to help those who are in need at this difficult time.
It is an interesting concept proposed by Shawna Stolte. The issue is that the residents are left out of prioritizing this expense with others that are imposed on us. I think the message coming from residents is that tax increases must be managed. Receiving a message that snow clearing services will be enhanced when we are receiving less snow on average, or the investments in some other “services” that are higher up on the Maslow hierarchy of needs should also come under review in a zero based budgeting approach.
The suggestion from City Officials that property owners should call their insurance companies brings to light the bigger issue which the Government of Canada is grappling with in their Public Safety Canada report: “Adapting to Rising Flood Risk, A Report on Flood Insurance and Relocation”. It has been widely reported that insurance companies, who are experiencing substantial losses as a result of climate, are changing their offerings of insurance to adapt and survive. The absence of, or high cost of coverage may have a significant impact on people’s livelihoods in the event of a flood loss. When was the last time you reviewed your property insurance coverage?
The City of Burlington is on the map for the 2014 flood and now we have experienced a second flood 10 years later. Perhaps the metric of the 100 year flood also needs to be reviewed.