{"id":20293,"date":"2018-04-04T20:43:43","date_gmt":"2018-04-05T00:43:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=20293"},"modified":"2018-04-04T20:43:43","modified_gmt":"2018-04-05T00:43:43","slug":"climate-change-prompts-question-of-whether-aurora-is-flood-ready","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/climate-change-prompts-question-of-whether-aurora-is-flood-ready\/","title":{"rendered":"Climate Change prompts question of whether Aurora is flood-ready"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir
\n<\/strong>
\nClimate change has brought some extreme weather to the recent years, whether it has been snow days on the rise or flooding on many of Aurora\u2019s streets after significant rainfall \u2013 now Council wants assurances that Aurora is truly flood ready.
\nCouncil is calling on the Lake Simcoe Conservation Authority (LSRCA) to tell Council whether they are \u201crevising any of their assumptions\u201d about local flood plains as climate continues to evolve while, at the same time, carrying out an inventory on local dams and flood control measures in older parts of Aurora to ensure they are ready to cope with heavy rainfall.
\nThe decision follows a motion from Councillor Wendy Gaertner who said the Insurance Bureau of Canada expects a \u201csevere flood event somewhere in Canada every two to three weeks between April and October.\u201d
\n\u201cI have concerns and we have a responsibility to the community to make sure that we are as prepared as we can be for climate change and this motion speaks to that,\u201d said Councillor Gaertner. \u201cIt is asking for a report\u2026with respect to the conditions of our flood control measures, whether new buildings in the old part of Town is going to require any additional amendments to that and identify work throughout Town that needs remedial or new capital work \u2013 and just what this is going to cost us so we can be prepared and not be caught short.\u201d
\nThe motion, she said, was timely as it came in the same meeting where Council approved the 2018 water budget which, as The Auroran reported last week, includes revised rates for water, wastewater and stormwater.
\nLast week\u2019s report indicated that the municipality might not be collecting enough money in stormwater billings \u201cto ensure the long-term viability of the system,\u201d she said.
\n\u201cMy motion is about being ready with respect to climate change and adapting to accommodate it,\u201d said Councillor Gaertner. \u201cIn our case, I think a lot of the adaptation and preparedness has to do with flooding. There are two parts to that: one, is there enough money in our capital reserves for major restoration work and have we adequately planned out what will be required for capital investments.
\n\u201cThe second is the maintenance of the system and have we got adequate funding to maintain it? I would just like\u2026whoever is sitting on Council in the future, to be able to say to residents that we are prepared and we are going to do the best we can for you.\u201d
\nCouncil was supportive of the motion, but some had some minor reservations.
\nCouncillor Michael Thompson, for instance, said while he supported the motion he wanted to make sure it was not duplicating work that already exists in Aurora\u2019s Asset Management Plan, as that too addresses risks in infrastructure and remedial work that might need to be carried out.
\nWhile Town Treasurer Dan Elliott said the Plan does speak to these conditions, it is at a \u201chigh level.\u201d Councillor Gaertner\u2019s notion would look at infrastructure particularly in flood areas to make sure everything is in good repair.
\n\u201cThe Asset Management Plan speaks to generalities and the 10 Year Capital Plan has some of that, but I don\u2019t think the two of them combined can satisfy the interests [of Councillor Gaertner],\u201d said Mr. Elliott.
\nThrowing his support behind the motion was Councillor John Abel who said recognizing climate change is an important thing to look at.
\n\u201cIt was in 1973 [that insurers] noticed there were flood increases,\u201d he said. \u201cYears later, we still have some people doubting there\u2019s climate change, but insurance people monitor and have stats and overwhelmingly they are reporting more claims \u2013 and that tells you something. It\u2019s all part of how to adapt for changing. I think it is a responsible way that we should be handling what could be happening to our infrastructure, our residents and how to mitigate it.
\nAgreed Councillor Paul Pirri: \u201cOnce these issues happen once, it becomes incredibly difficult for those citizens to manage getting insurance to be prepared when it happens again. This is a big issue that is being dealt with all across Canada and it is an important issue we should be aware of.\u201d
\nAlthough Mayor Geoff Dawe said what Councillor Gaertner asked for would be a \u201csubstantial piece of work\u201d for staff, he said the LSRCA has already reached out to do their part.
\n\u201cThe rains we had in June 2015 \u2013 we haven\u2019t seen that much rain since Hurricane Hazel and although there was some substantial flooding, there was nowhere close to what was experienced at the time of Hurricane Hazel.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Climate change has brought some extreme weather to the recent years, whether it has been snow days on the rise or flooding on many of Aurora\u2019s streets after significant rainfall \u2013 now Council wants assurances that Aurora is truly flood ready. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-5hj","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-05 02:53:42","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20293"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20293\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}