Hamilton politicians have approved a wish list, of sorts, ahead of a January deadline to apply for funding under a federal disaster mitigation and adaptation program.
The city will be seeking close to $63 million, or 40 per cent funding, of $157-million worth of work that it says is needed because of the impacts of climate change.
Projects that the city is applying for under the Infrastucture Canada program include:
– Shoreline protection work to rectify damage caused by storms in 2017 and 2018 and improve resilience for future extreme storm events.
– Installation of back-flow devices at critical locations along Hamilton’s sewer system outlets to prevent inflow infiltration from high lake levels as the result of extreme storm events.
– Implementation of Churchill Park and Rosedale neighbourhood community flood mitigation strategies and construction of new storm sewers in the Aberdeen-Hillcrest area.
– Escarpment stabilization work to repair deterioration caused by extreme storm events.
– Construction and rehabilitation of various bridges and culverts to alleviate reported flooding from extreme storm events.
Hamilton Mayor Fred Eisenberger says climate change is a thing and it’s about “preparing ourselves to deal with these issues as opposed to waiting for them to happen.”
He notes that freeze-thaw cycles have been “devastating” on the escarpment crossings, shoreline flooding has happened on many occasions and he says, “Avoiding those, I think, is going to be a cost savings for us, not an expense.
The city’s share would be $94 million, if the entire federal grant request was approved.
Council’s challenge would then be to prioritize those projects over 10 years within Hamilton’s capital budget.