Richmond Hill gets $1.1 M in interim ice storm relief

Rest of $3.25 M request being assessed

Yorkregion.com
Feb. 13, 2015
By Kim Zarzour

The Town of Richmond Hill has been offered one-third of what it asked for in ice storm cleanup costs from the province.

The announcement this afternoon from the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing said the town will have access to $1.1 million in interim funding from Ontario’s Ice Storm Assistance Program.

The program is a one-time disaster relief program for the storm of December 2013 that damaged an estimated 200,000 trees on private and public property throughout the municipality and left 36,000 Richmond Hill PowerStream customers without power.

The town submitted a claim for $3.25 million in December 2014.

The total cost to the town of responding to and recovering from the 2013 ice storm is estimated at $7 million.

Tree planting is not covered under the assistance program. Replanting of the approximately 5,000 municipal trees damaged in the storm will begin in spring 2015 and may take up to two years to complete.

Yanni Dagonas, spokesperson for the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, said 58 municipalities and nine conservation authorities made claims under the assistance program.

Three of those municipalities with smaller claims were offered full payment today, while the remaining, with much larger and more complex claims, received one-third of their costs to assist them with budget planning, while the rest of their claim is finalized.

The remaining funding will be issued once the claims review is complete and eligible costs are verified, he said.

The province initiated final payments of $297,543 to the Township of Centre Wellington, $23,009 to the Township of Mapleton and $44,923 to the Township of Puslinch, Dagonas said.

The highest claim of $77 million was submitted by the City of Toronto, followed by a $30 M claim from the City of Brampton, $11 M from Hamilton and $10.9 from Vaughan.

The assistance program focuses on costs related to the immediate emergency response, such as setting up warming centres and the subsequent cleanup of debris necessary to protect public safety.