Edmonton city councillor Michael Walters is calling on the province and Ottawa to help cover $2.4 billion in infrastructure upgrades as part of the city’s long-term flood mitigation plan.
Unless the provincial or federal government help pay, that cost will be downloaded onto homeowners. That would mean a two to three per cent increase in Edmontonians’ drainage utility bills.
The flood prevention program, as well as the increases to drainage utility costs, would be implemented in 2019 over a period of 50 to 100 years.
“It has to be a real partnership, because the cost is immense,” Walters said.
The city has already spent nearly $500 million to upgrade certain areas at a high risk of flooding.
Water flooded many neighbourhoods in Mill Woods in in 2012 after 70 millimetres of rain fell in less than one hour.
Walters said without dedicated funding from other levels of government, the city will have to use money from the province’s Municipal Sustainability Initiative (MSI).
That would “pit drainage projects against other infrastructure projects like libraries and fire stations,” he said.
“I don’t want to do that.”
For now, the city plans to spend about $200 million to upgrade neighbourhoods at the highest risk of flooding.
