SPECIAL BULLETIN ON JULY 1 EXTREME WEATHER EVENT
The scale of damage across the City resulting from the July 1 extreme weather event is overwhelming. As we have learned and based on service calls and reports of basement flooding, Ward 9 (Knoxdale-Merivale) is among the hardest hit areas, along with Ward 7 (Bay) and Ward 8 (College).
Over the past 72 hours, my team and I have engaged with hundreds of residents across the ward: on the phone, through emails, and of course, in-person. I’ve visited as many of the affected areas across Ward 9 as I can and will continue to do so. I’ve been inside many of your homes and seen first-hand the devastation that many of you are dealing with. Please know that I am extremely sympathetic to what you are going through. Sadly, I’ve been involved in far too many natural disasters over the last 8 years. Two of those disasters (the September 2018 tornado, and the August 2023 extreme rain event), affected my home and family. I will continue to do all that I can to help the residents of Ward 9 get through this latest challenge.
The main purpose of this Special Bulletin is to provide useful information to Ward 9 residents who have been impacted by historic levels of rainfall and flooding on July 1. We will continue to do so with other Special Bulletins, with our Regular Newsletter, and through our social media.
In my next regular newsletter on July 7, I’ll aim to provide some examples of the damage across the ward. For now, at the end of this Special Bulletin, I’ll provide a small sample of one of the more shocking examples of the scale of this extreme weather event.
STORM-RELATED WASTE COLLECTION
Beginning Monday, July 6, the City will deploy Special Collection crews in addition to regular collection to remove storm-related waste and debris from flood-affected areas. The Special Collection operation will begin with the most impacted areas, including: Ward 7 (Bay), Ward 8 (College) and Ward 9 (Knoxdale-Merivale).
Given the unprecedented scope of flooding and damage, and the current volume of requests being received, it is anticipated that the collection of storm-related debris may take several weeks.
Please note that the City cannot at this time provide a neighborhood-by-neighborhood schedule for this Special Collection, as the volume of debris is unknown.
What residents should do:
- Place storm-related waste at the curb starting on Monday, July 6 and leave it there until it is collected. Collection crews will move through affected areas as quickly as possible.
- Depending on volume of waste, it is possible that the Special Collection crew may only collect some of your storm-related debris and return later. Residents should not submit additional 3-1-1 requests simply because waste remains at the curb.
What will be collected:
- Flood-damaged household contents and garbage
- Spoiled food resulting from power outages (see note below)
- Unlimited storm-related garbage and bulky items (the normal three-item limit is being waived)
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Up to two containers of flood-related construction debris (e.g., drywall, plywood). Construction debris must be placed in containers:
- no larger than 140 litres
- weighing less than 15 kg (33 lbs)
- with a removable lid
- Textile floor coverings such as carpet, under pad or area rugs must be securely tied into compact bundles of no more than 1.2 metres (4 feet) in length, 0.6 metres (2 feet) in width and height and not exceeding 15 kilograms (33 pounds) in weight.
- Materials contaminated by sewage or other hazardous materials should be bagged for the safety of collection staff.
The City will only collect up to two containers of flood-related construction material at the curb. For larger amounts of construction debris, residents should work with their insurance provider, a contractor, or they may bring material to the Trail Waste Facility. Note: a $43 minimum flat fee is applied to household garbage under 250kg. To accommodate the anticipated increased demand following the storm, the Trail Waste Facility Landfill will be open on additional Saturdays over the coming weeks.
Organic waste – including spoiled food resulting from power outages - will not be collected as part of the Special Collection program. Residents should continue to use their green bin for organic waste, as part of their regular collection schedule. Branches and yard waste should be set out according to normal collection rules on their regular collection day.
Household hazardous waste is not accepted through any curbside collection and should be safely stored until it can be disposed of through the City's Household Hazardous Waste program. The next Household Hazardous Waste drop-off event will take place on July 25, 2026, at Kanata Research Park, 373 Leggett Drive, from 8 am to 4 pm
Electronic waste (e-waste) is not accepted for curbside garbage collection. Much of this waste consists of steel, glass, copper, aluminum, plastics and precious metals that can be recycled and reused. Check Ottawa.ca for e-waste events, or residents can bring e-waste to the Trail Waste Facility Landfill. Visit Ottawa.ca for hours of operation.
HOME INSURANCE
The financial burden on individual households caused by this scale of damage can be overwhelming. And when disasters such as these are so widespread, impacting so many properties, it can be a real challenge getting in contact with your insurance provider, or getting an assessment. We’ve also heard from several residents that they either don’t have the right coverage (e.g. no overland flooding coverage), or their coverage is insufficient to meet the scale of repairs required.
The Insurance Bureau of Canada has set up a special help page especially for Ottawa residents affected by this flood, with tips and recommendations.
FINANCIAL RELIEF MEASURES
The province of Ontario has a Disaster Recovery Assistance for Ontarians (DRAO) program, which can help eligible residents recover costs after a natural disaster. Typically, this program provides relief to residents who are either uninsured or underinsured. For Ottawa residents to qualify for DRAO, the province must designate Ottawa as an activation area. On Friday, Ottawa West-Nepean MPP Chandra West and Nepean MPP Tyler Watt submitted letters to Ontario Minister of Emergency Preparedness & Response Jill Dunlop, calling on the province to designate Ottawa as an activation area for DRAO.
This morning I received an email from Scott Phelan, the Premier’s Deputy Chief of Staff, acknowledging that the Minister has received the letters, and that conversations are already underway with the Premier’s office, as well as the Minister of Municipal Affairs & House. Mayor Sutcliffe has also been engaged in these conversations.
While DRAO eligibility and activation will be instrumental to helping affected residents get through this challenge, it is a process that will take some time. Until then, residents are encouraged to continue documenting everything, and to hold onto receipts for all related expenses.
Here is some information on other potential financial relief measures:
- The City of Ottawa’s Compassionate Grant program provides financial assistance of up to $1,000 to qualified City of Ottawa property owners or tenant affected by basement flooding due to sewer surcharging. The grant is not provided for basement flooding due to an event such as an appliance failure, sewer lateral blockage, or overland flooding due to a foundation crack or leaking window well. Please note: this program was never intended to provide relief at the scale of what might be currently required, and I don’t know what the limits to this fund might be.
- The City of Ottawa may cancel, reduce or refund part of the property taxes levied on properties where a building was destroyed by the storm, or damaged by the storm to render it substantially unusable, or repairs prevented the normal use of a building for at least 3 months. Residents have until February 28, 2027 to submit an application for this program.
- As a forward-looking measure, residents should consider taking advantage of the city’s Residential Protective Plumbing Program, which provides financial assistance to qualified City of Ottawa property owners for the installation of protective plumbing devices such as sump pumps and storm and sanitary backwater valves.
OTHER CITY OF OTTAWA INFORMATION
The City of Ottawa will continue to provide useful information related to this event, largely through the Heavy Rainfall page on the city’s website. Here is some current information from that site:
- For any resident who has experienced basement flooding, and if you have not already done so, it’s important to let the City know about your situation through the City’s Report Basement Flooding page. This will help the City know where to allocate resources, and it will also help the City understand which areas are most prone to different kinds of flooding.
- Ben Franklin Place is closed until further notice as a result of significant water infiltration and flooding caused by severe weather. This means that Centrepointe Library, as well as Meridian Theatre, are closed until further notice.
BROADER INFRASTRUCTURE CONCERNS
While my immediate focus is on addressing the immediate needs of Ward 9 residents who have been affected by this incident, I can’t help but be aware of the larger concerns that I have raised since being elected Councillor for Ward 9. Regular readers of this newsletter will be familiar with how I have raised concerns ranging from insufficient maintenance of infrastructure, to not being adequately prepared to upgrade or modify our infrastructure to meet the pressures and demands of extreme weather events like what we have just experienced. All of these concerns speak to the kinds of situations we’re seeing along Graham Creek, where regular, proactive maintenance and debris removal is essential to ensure proper flow and drainage, to the neighborhoods of Carleton Heights / General Burns, where the City has finally committed to doing a study to measure whether the underlying infrastructure can meet demand, to the repeated instances of properties being allowed to expand their footprint or otherwise change their grading and drainage plans, without mitigating the effects that this can have on neighboring properties.
City Council has been told repeatedly that extreme weather events such as these are becoming more frequent, and more extreme. Unless we protect against these situations, and invest in that protection, these disastrous outcomes will continue.
For now, my focus will remain on immediate assistance for Ward 9’s affected residents, but this larger conversation needs to continue.
A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT
One of the most heavily impacted areas in Ward 9 was in the Trend-Arlington area, and more specifically on the streets that border Graham Creek. For anyone who doesn’t know, Graham Creek is an important natural water way that carries water from many areas south and west of Ward 9, all the way down to the Ottawa River. Every Spring, we see significant increases in the water level in Graham Creek, but that was nothing compared to what happened on July 1.
Based on my own observations, which City staff confirmed, the water levels in Graham Creek rose approximately 10 meters above the creek bed. Since most of Graham Creek lays at the bottom of a deep ravine, this means that for almost 24 hours, what is normally a gentle creek became a massive lake, 10 meters feet deep, over 20 meters wide, and almost 2 kilometers long.
Normally, Graham Creek runs along the bottom of the ravine, and three culverts in Trend-Arlington: one at McClellan Road, one at Canfield Road, and one at Banner Road.
As storm debris accumulated at each of those culvert inlet grates, and due to the sheer volume of water, Graham Creek ran overland at the highest point, which is at Canfield Road.
That’s when Canfield Road became “Canfield River”. Thankfully, soon after seeing this, I managed to get a City of Ottawa to send out one of its heavy-duty pumps to start draining all this water, which helped it to receded within 12 hours. But this “river” caused the most severe damage that I’ve seen so far across Ward 9, as you’ll see from some of the photos and videos below.
The two photos below are of Canfield Road. The first photo is at around 10:00am on July 2nd, when the road was completely impassable. The second photo is at around 8:30pm, when the water had been drained by the pump further downstream.
This first video shows how much water was crossing Canfield Road, effectively turning it into a river. This second video shows how that water ran through a house, effectively turning the garden space in between two houses into the “Canfield River Rapids”, obliterating everything in its path.
This Facebook video is from one of the residents whose home was directly in the path of “Canfield River”, as you can see the before-and-after affect. I’ll be talking more about this family, and this part of Ward 9, as well as many other families and stories, in the July 7 Newsletter.
Until then, stay kind, everyone!