SoVote

Decentralized Democracy

Ontario Assembly

43rd Parl. 1st Sess.
February 27, 2023 09:00AM
  • Feb/27/23 11:00:00 a.m.

Thank you to the member for Carleton for the question. She’s doing an excellent job for her constituents every single day.

Mr. Speaker, I certainly do understand first-hand the challenges that flooding can bring to communities. In 2013 and 2019, in the community that I led at the time, we went through devastating situations. And in 2019, the Premier was there on that very first day to ask how he could help.

But Mr. Speaker, coming out of that, the Premier and others have paid a lot of attention to developing a flooding strategy for Ontario and making sure that communities have this strategy that they can call on, drawing on expert recommendations to ensure the public is better prepared for flooding, and that we’ve been working hard to implement those recommendations.

We’ve also committed over $30 million to protect wetlands, one of the biggest wetland recovery investments in provincial history, and that helps with flood mitigation as well. Over $26 million in disaster recovery assistance to individuals, businesses and communities, and $4.7 million to help with municipalities with flood forecasting. We can’t prevent floods, but we—

Speaker, there are no quick fixes when it comes to reducing impacts from flooding, but Ontario’s flooding strategy aims to improve preparedness and make Ontario a true leader in flood management.

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