The grant program recognized the need to provide opportunities for projects which are less the $20M to be considered. As such the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing and Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry in Ontario was granted permission to submit a bundled set of projects from various municipalities to achieve the $20M minimum project cost required in the DMAF programs. To participate in the bundling of projects through the Provincial ministries, an expression of interest and a full application would have to be completed and given to the Province by July 19, 2019. This would allow the Ministry time to compile all proposals and meet an August 1st, 2019 deadline to the grant provider. If a municipality identified a project in access of the $20M minimum requirement they were to apply directly to the grant provider, Infrastructure Canada, by August 1, 2019.

By way of comparison to the 2018 DMAF grant program, which the City was awarded funding of $32.1M, Infrastructure Canada provided notification of the grant on June 4, 2018, with the Expression of Interests (EOI) due July 31, 2018, notification of an invitation to submit a full application was received October 12, 2018 and the full application was due January 11, 2019, 7 months in total. This special intake is drastically shorter providing 2 weeks for small projects to be submitted via the Provincial ministry or just over 3 weeks for projects over $20M to be submitted individually. In addition, both the EOI and detailed application are required at the same time. This report provides Administration’s recommended projects based on current data, plan details, costs, funding options and relationship to the requirements of the grant program which could be identified in this compressed timeframe.

Discussion:

The City has put forward several initiatives from the 8-point flooding plan to help reduce the risk of flooding in our City. Previous flooding related incidents were a result of significant rain events overwhelming our systems. In 2019 these challenges were further complicated by the higher than normal waterway levels. The implications of this have been reported frequently over the past several months and include but are not limited to: closure of the marinas, replacing the docks damaged by the flooding, temporary closure of Peche Island, changes to boating requirements to reduce wakes and sand bag program for residents.

ERCA has reported “Area waterways are now 1 meter above the norm for this time of year and 6 inches above ERCA’s worst case scenario for testing purposes.” Furthermore one of the areas identified as being part of the 10,000 plus homes at risk runs along Windsor’s shoreline. Flood advisories in 2019 exceed 2018 numbers by 62% and ERCA anticipates waterway levels may rise further. Given how flat our area is ERCA cautions even increases by inches can be very challenging for the area. ERCA is now planning special workshops in August to provide residents with more information and ways to help manage the risk.

The guidelines from the 2018 DMAF grant apply to this special intake, with exception of the following changes:

- Focus is solely on impacts related to Spring 2019 flooding events