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Kanata and Stittsville residents could wait two years before the federal and provincial governments come through with the help that would let the city move ahead with expensive improvements to prevent sewage from backing up in their basements during severe storms.
After a press conference for the Ottawa Chinatown Gateway project Tuesday, Mayor Larry O’Brien said, in response to media questions, that the city was “operating at the maximum capacity fixing some of the major problems we have,” and would not seek additional funding to improve sewer infrastructure in flood-affected neighbourhoods.
“In a couple of years, absolutely, we’ll be going back to our federal and our provincial partners and looking for more significant funding.”
But a few hours later, after O’Brien’s remarks were posted on the Citizen website, his chief of staff, Brent Colbert, said officials are preparing a report on what upgrades the stormwater infrastructure in the flood-affected neighbourhoods needs. It will be delivered to council on Sept. 2.
“At that point, we expect council to direct staff to begin the work that’s necessary to draft a proposal to seek funding of partners to begin that work.”
On July 24, more than 800 households in several neighbourhoods on the city’s west side were flooded when a heavy rainfall overwhelmed the stormwater system, causing toilets and floor drains to back up into basements. For some residents, it was the third time their homes had been flooded since 1996.
Colbert said O’Brien, in his morning remarks, was referring to the two-year federal infrastructure stimulus projects in the city and the $100 million of wastewater projects that were approved after the 2006 sewage spill into the Ottawa River, though in his comments the mayor also clearly addressed the municipal government’s capacity to handle more construction projects.
“I’m not sure how much more (money) we could use right now,” O’Brien said. “Certainly, the city is spending more right now than it has ever in its history. If you drive around the city — on Bank Street, on Preston — and all the other projects that are planned. If we did much more, then you wouldn’t be able to drive anywhere in this city.”
The mayor’s comments shocked councillors representing the hardest-hit wards.
“I don’t think we can say we’ve got enough on our plate when we’ve got people with raw sewage in their basement three times in a row in less than 15 years,” said Kanata South Councillor Peggy Feltmate, whose constituents include residents of Glen Cairn, where hundreds of households were flooded in both 1996 and 2002.
Feltmate, who was on vacation in Europe when the flooding occurred, was touring Dundegan Drive — where every single home was flooded — on Tuesday.
“I can tell you after talking to many people that the city is going to have to step up to the plate,” she said. “It’s not going to be a delay of a year or two. It’s going to be started as soon as possible.”
Kanata North Councillor Marianne Wilkinson agreed.
“If we don’t go to the federal government, then we’ve got to use our own (money) because we can’t leave it,” she said, adding that fixing the sewer system in Kanata should take priority over the projects to reduce the amount of raw sewage dumped into the Ottawa River during heavy rainfalls. “We have to deal with both of them,” she said, “but if you’re going to do one after the other, I would look after people before the river.”
Wilkinson said the concentration of sewage that backed up into residents’ homes “is much more powerful” than what ends up in the river. “The system is not working, obviously … these people, in both Peggy’s ward and my ward, have been inundated at least three times — and that’s too many.”
After speaking with O’Brien Tuesday afternoon, Wilkinson said the mayor committed to her that the issue is a priority.
“I support the fact that the mayor is going to help us in moving forward to correct these situations,” she said in a later interview.
Feltmate said councillors will have to wait until they receive the report on Sept. 2, but once the problems are identified, they should be addressed immediately.
“Whether we pay for that with infrastructure funding from the province and the federal government or whether we pay for it out of our sewer funds, our user-pay funds or our taxes, what I do know is that we’re going to be working on ensuring that the work gets identified as soon as possible,” she said. “People in Glen Cairn cannot possibly go through another flood like this.”