City To Receive Ice Storm Recovery Funding

This afternoon, Minister Linda Jeffrey, Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing announced municipal aid for cleanup costs related to the December 22, 2013 ice storm.

“This funding announcement is so important to the GTA municipalities,” said Mayor Hazel McCallion.  “We told the Province of Ontario and the Federal Government of Canada that we needed assistance; the property tax cannot bear the brunt of these types of emergencies.  They listened and we can now rebuild thanks to this infusion of funds.”

“The December 22 storm resulted in damages of a staggering $275 million to GTA municipalities and hydro utilities,” said Janice Baker, City Manager and CAO.  “These provincial funds will aid us to restore public property and offset costs.”

The province will work with the federal government to fund 100 per cent of eligible recovery costs through a one-time Ice Storm Assistance Program.  Program details are still to be finalized, but eligible costs may be as much as $190 million, according to the Ministry news release.

Jeffrey made the announcement in Toronto at Queen’s Park.

Background:
The GTA Mayors and Regional Chairs, who represent approximately 7 million residents, met at Mississauga’s Living Arts Centre on January 17 and united to ask for provincial and federal ice storm funding.

Resolutions passed that day included:

• The Provincial and Federal governments to share equally in this disaster with municipalities by each funding one third of the full cost of response and ongoing recovery from the ice storm for affected municipalities.
• That the Provincial and Federal governments treat all applicable municipalities equally and equitably.
• That the Provincial and Federal governments recognize the urgency of this matter and provide a response by March 1, 2014.

In a separate resolution:

• The Provincial and the Federal governments establish new programs and expand existing programs to address disaster mitigation that would include: forestry; erosion control; winter storms; tree canopy; and other severe storm events that reflect the reality of climate change; and to include funding for rehabilitation of municipal infrastructure to mitigate this and future environmental and storm event impacts.

These resolutions were sent to all Members of Parliament, Members of Provincial Parliament, the Premier of Ontario, the Prime Minister of Canada, the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) and the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM).

As Canada’s sixth largest city, Mississauga is home to 741,000 residents and more than 54,000 businesses, including more than 60 Fortune 500 companies with Canadian head offices or major divisional head offices. A diverse, progressive and award-winning municipality located on the shores of Lake Ontario in the heart of the Greater Toronto Area, Mississauga is “Leading Today for Tomorrow” by focussing on delivering services, implementing its Strategic Plan, delivering value for money and maintaining infrastructure.