City of St. Catharines to continue discussions about flood recovery support at AMO conference

The City of St. Catharines will use next week’s Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) Conference in Ottawa to build on ongoing discussions with the Province of Ontario about the community’s flood recovery, while advocating for additional support for affected residents and long-term investments to strengthen the city’s resilience.
Mayor Mat Siscoe, members of City Council and City staff will attend the annual conference, where municipal leaders from across Ontario meet with provincial ministers and officials to discuss local priorities. The conference, taking place Aug. 16-19, comes as St. Catharines continues to recover from three significant rainfall events in less than two weeks that caused widespread flooding and damage across the city.

Since the flooding began, the Province has been an active partner in the response and recovery. Premier Doug Ford and provincial representatives have visited St. Catharines, remained in regular contact with City officials and provided resources to support recovery efforts, including Ontario Corps support through Team Rubicon and dehumidifiers for affected residents.
“Our community is facing significant costs and a long road to recovery. AMO is an important opportunity to continue those conversations and advocate for the financial support our residents need, while also working with the Province on the infrastructure investments and programs that will help protect our community from future extreme weather,” said Mayor Mat Siscoe. “We appreciate the responsiveness we’ve seen to date from the Province, but we know more partnerships are needed to help our community become more resilient to these types of incidents in the future.”

At the AMO conference, the City will be looking to continue discussions with provincial representatives about:
• Activating the Disaster Recovery Assistance for Ontarians (DRAO) program for affected areas of St. Catharines.
• Providing funding for the City’s flood alleviation program to help meet significant resident demand and support homeowners in making improvements that reduce the risk of impact of future flooding.
• Increasing provincial support for climate-resilient stormwater, sanitary sewer, drainage and related municipal infrastructure.
• Ensuring Ontario’s disaster recovery programs continue to evolve with the increasing frequency, severity and cost of extreme weather.
“We have committed significant municipal resources to the response and our ongoing recovery efforts, and that work will continue,” said St. Catharines CAO David Oakes. “But events of this magnitude cannot be addressed by municipalities alone. We need all levels of government working together to support recovery today and make the long-term infrastructure investments needed to prepare our communities for increasingly extreme weather.”

In addition to discussions about flood recovery, the City has several previously scheduled delegations with provincial representatives on priorities submitted before this summer’s flooding. Topics include:
• Ministry of Finance: Greater consistency in municipal vacancy-related property tax adjustment policies following the phase-out of the vacancy rebate, as well as departure tax reform related to Alectra’s sustainable finance advocacy.
• Ministry of Infrastructure: Greater flexibility in provincial infrastructure funding programs to better reflect municipal needs and realities.
• Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks (MOECP): Greater certainty around the Municipal Class Environmental Assessment process and support for brownfield cleanup and remediation to help unlock strategically important sites for housing.
• Ministry of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade: Advancing the Great Lakes economic agenda, including work through the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative and cross-border collaboration involving Ontario’s Auto Mayors.
• Ministry of Health: More coordinated provincial supports to address homelessness and addictions, including residential addiction services and pressures increasingly being experienced across municipal operations.

In addition to City of St. Catharines delegations, Mayor Siscoe and City officials will also be participating in a variety of meetings with the Ontario Big City Mayors, Niagara Transit meetings with the Ministry of Transportation and the MOECP, a joint meeting with the Town of Lincoln with Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing and other conference activities.
“AMO gives municipalities direct access to provincial decision-makers, and we intend to make the most of that opportunity,” said Mayor Siscoe. “We have important long-term priorities to advance, but there is no question that supporting our community’s recovery from these floods will be at the forefront of our conversations in Ottawa.”