Council here has agreed to apply for provincial funding through the Ontario Disaster Relief Assistance Program (ODRAP), based on the cumulative effect of ice storms in April and December last year.
“We believe we have a valid case for getting this help,” CAO Bill White told council at the Jan. 14 meeting.
While Minto’s ODRAP application following the April ice storm was turned down by the province, White noted “things are evolving quickly provincially,” since the December storm.
“Whenever there’s an emergency in Toronto it’s a disaster all of a sudden,” said White, though he added, “I know they were impacted quite significantly.”
White noted, “This storm for Minto wasn’t quite as bad as the April ice storm. We had quite a bit longer power outage and more trees down in April.”
However, he pointed out the City of Toronto, which recently agreed to seek $114 million in disaster relief funding from the provincial and federal governments, was putting together damage from December’s ice storm and the flooding in the city last spring to make applications.
During a conference call with provincial officials, White said Wellington County officials got the impression “the minister will consider the cumulative impact from disasters.
“So we were lucky enough to have two ice storms in 2013, so we should apply for the ODRAP funding to help us out with those,” he quipped.
In December, Minto received a letter from Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Linda Jeffrey explaining why the municipality’s application for $102,435 in ODRAP funding for the spring ice storm was turned down.
“The cost of the recent storm represents less than three per cent of Minto’s taxation revenue, well below the threshold that the ministry would use to determine eligibility,” Jeffrey stated.
Mayor George Bridge questioned whether the 3% figure was being universally applied, noting by some estimates Toronto’s funding request is about three per cent of the city’s budget.
“It will be interesting to see if 3% in Toronto is different than 3% in Minto,” said Bridge.
Councillor Mary Lou Colwell said 3% is a significant amount to local taxpayers.
“If we passed on a 3% increase just for the ice storm to our taxpayers, plus another increase that was necessary because of other issues, a 3% increase is quite a bit to our taxpayers on top of any other increase,” said Colwell.
“So it may not seem like a lot to her (Jeffrey) that it’s only three percent of our tax revenue, but to our constituents I think it is.”
White said Minto continues to incur costs from the April storm, which will be compounded by the most recent damage.
“We still continued to incur costs throughout the summer and there are still costs out there for trees that are still laying down on road allowances and on properties that we have to get to, and now there are even more trees down,” said White.
“We believe our damage could approach quite a bit more – $150,000 or $200,000. When you couple that in with last year’s winter it’s one of few years there’s the potential of looking at some serious budget issues by year’s end.”
