Vaughan ice storm cleanup hits $21M

Vaughan Citizen
January 15, 2014
By Adam Martin-Robbins

The city estimates the damage wrought by last month’s massive ice storm could end up costing about $21 million.

“Right now, our focus is on the safety of residents and the clean up and making the city operational again. We’ve done well up to now, but we’re still not finished,” Mayor Maurizio Bevilacqua said in an interview after yesterday’s special meeting to update council on the damage wrought by the storm. “When we have to deal with the financing issue, I’m sure we’ll find a way to address it.”

Council unanimously passed a resolution requesting the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing declare Vaughan a disaster area so the city can tap into provincial relief funding through the Ontario Disaster Relief Assistance Program (ODRAP).

But it’s unclear, at this point, how much financial assistance, if any, the city might receive.

“We’re going to have to see what type of (relief) package the provincial and/or federal government may come up with,” Mr. Bevilacqua said. “These are extraordinary times and they require extraordinary measures from other levels of government.”

To qualify for provincial government assistance, the city must have wracked up eligible costs of more than $6.2 million to $6.3 million, according to a report by interim city manager Barbara Cribbett.

The city figures its bill for labour, additional contracts, overtime and communications, among other eligible costs, totalled about $10 million.

The remaining $11 million for tree damage is unlikely to be considered for funding through ODRAP, but there may be other opportunities, Ms Cribbett said.

The Dec. 22 ice storm, which battered much of Southern Ontario, left 37,500 homes and businesses in Vaughan without power, many for several days.

It also impacted more than 32,500 trees across the city, an estimated 13,600 of which will need to be replaced.

Among the worst hit areas were the Thornhill neighbourhoods west of Bathurst St; the Dufferin St. and Rutherford Rd. area as well as the subdivisions along Keele St. between Rutherford Rd. and Teston Rd. in Maple and the area west of Weston Rd., between Langstaff Rd. and Rutherford Rd. in East Woodbridge.

The initial clean up of trees and branches is well under way, but it is expected to last until the end of February.

A final clean up is slated for the spring, after all the ice and snow has melted.