The federal government and the City of London are pouring more than $9 million into a project to strengthen flood prevention measures in the Broughdale area.
The joint funding was announced Friday morning at Museum London as the federal government said it would contribute more than $3.6 million and the city would provide $5.4 million to raise and solidify the Broughdale Dyke.
The funds from the government will be invested through the Disaster Mitigation and Adaptation Fund, a national program that “invests in public structural and natural infrastructure projects to increase the resilience of communities at risk of being affected by natural disasters” in the hopes of reducing the impact before they occur.
“This includes strengthening infrastructure to prevent threats to health and safety, and for critical infrastructure, preventing disruptions to essential services or significant disruptions to economic activity, as well as reducing high recovery and replacement costs,” federal officials said a statement.
London North Centre MP Peter Fragiskatos said that “flooding is something that is happening much more often.”
“We saw that in the Atlantic provinces months ago, but London is not immune to this, and we have to prepare,” he said Friday. “We do have existing resources that guard against flooding for communities, but they do need to be upgraded and that’s why today’s announcement is so important.”
According to officials, the funding will help protect residential as well as institutional areas in London against severe flooding due to overflowing from the Thames River.
“This project is really important, especially for this section of the Thames River that protects not only 190 properties, but important municipal infrastructure, including parks, roads, and of course, the bridges in the area,” Mayor Josh Morgan said.
Currently, the Broughdale Dyke is only designed to protect against a once-in-a-century flood. But Ashley Rammeloo, director of water, wastewater and stormwater for the city, said the problem is that these flooding events are occurring more often than previously predicted.
“When we have those high-intensity storms, the river levels can come up much faster than we’ve seen. They may go down again, but the risk of that flooding is already there,” she said.
Rammeloo said that the plan is to raise the dyke’s current protection level from 100 years to 250 years which “significantly lessens that risk of flooding for those properties in the area.”
She said that consultants are set to be hired this spring with the first phase of construction set to take off in 2024 with the hopes of being completed by 2027 to 2028.
“This is phenomenal, not just for landowners seeing the impacts of climate change today, but for future generations who will face the challenges as we work to try to mitigate our impacts on the environment,” Morgan said.
Fragiskatos highlighted the “moral responsibility” to protect the municipality from the effects of climate change.
“If we’re not doing the right things, then we’re going to pay for it,” he said. “The recurring issue in my time as a member of Parliament has been the issue of climate change. It is something that strikes every court, regardless of where one sits on the ideological spectrum, it’s something that always stands out. So, we have a responsibility to act.”
The Liberal government also announced Friday that it’s providing $4.5 million to 22 tourism and community projects in London and its surrounding counties. This includes just over $300,000 for the Greek Canadian Community Centre, which will use the funds to improve its fields, greenspace and roof.
— with files from Global News’ Andrew Graham.
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