Toronto officials say they’ll be reviewing the city’s response to intense rainfall earlier this week that resulted in floodwaters overtaking major roads and a food bank issuing a plea for help.
Toronto’s city manager Paul Johnson told reporters Wednesday the amount of rainfall that fell Tuesday morning exceeded estimates from Environment Canada.
The question of why the Don Valley Parkway wasn’t closed before motorists were stranded following an intense downpour is one of many issues Johnson said he expects to tackle during a review to happen later this week.
Johnson said storms in the days leading up to Tuesday, including the remnants of Hurricane Beryl, didn’t result in similar flooding. He added that the city is unable to shutdown major routes every time there is inclement weather.
“It will not be helpful for us to say, ‘Every time there’s a thunderstorm, we’re going to close the Don Valley Parkway.’ That’s not a helpful answer to the issue,” Johnson said.
“What is, though, is to say, ‘How do we know when these cells are a little different than a normal summer thunderstorm or something like that, what is it we need to be aware of that allows us to do it?’”
This isn’t the first time there have been major impacts caused by severe rainfalls and the city has been steadily working away at ways to mitigate damage.
Mayor Olivia Chow added that the city is looking for ways to incentivize measures that can be taken by homeowners to help reduce flooding by installing porous materials to absorb water.
Exactly how that program would be funded remains unclear, but Chow’s said she’s in the midst of drafting a motion for city council.
The mayor also said she’s getting ongoing briefings on changes being made to a stormwater surcharge, a program which was paused earlier this year over criticism it would become a “rain tax.”
Earlier iterations of the plan looked to change the rates taxpayers are charged, depending on the amount of hard surfaces their property contains.
Debate over that program during a council meeting in May 2017, when then-mayor John Tory said it wasn’t ready to be adopted, resurfaced on social media following this week’s flooding.
Chow said she got an update from Toronto water services staff about what kind of policy could be put in place and what kind of consultation would be required for it.
Johnson added that Toronto’s efforts to reduce flooding risks have been helping when it comes to preventing flooding in new areas, but there remain challenges in adapting other parts, due to the way the city was built.
On top of that, the city manager said the city lacks both the time and resources to solve wider problems and completely rebuilding the sewer network is out of the question.
“The challenge is we’re improving our systems and the old infrastructure at the same time these events continue to happen,” Johnson said.
“I don’t even know why we continue to talk about 100-year storms anymore because that definition seems to have flown right out the window. We’ve had three of them in the last 11 years.”
Food bank hit hard by flood
City infrastructure aside, one of the city’s largest food banks is reeling after Tuesday’s storm and power outage resulted in severe damage.
“Our loading bays are flooded, our freezer is broken, and water is pouring into our warehouse,” North York Harvest Food Bank said on its website.
“The power outage caused us to lose a significant amount of refrigerated food, including milk, cheese, meat, and nutritious kids snacks intended to nourish our community. While we managed to save some items, the flooding during the loading process damaged one of our delivery trucks.”
The food bank is calling for monetary donations to help recover – a message echoed by several food banks in Ontario.
“Please consider helping our friends at @nyhfb if you’re able,” Daily Bread Food Bank wrote in a post on X.
“Our friends at @nyhfb need your help!” Food Banks Mississauga said in a post on X.
“Please support them if you can as they try to recover what was lost and damaged from the flooding.”