Some Dollard-des-Ormeaux residents say they’re feeling frustrated and left behind after the city cancelled an information session about recent flooding, while neighbouring Pointe-Claire is taking active steps to prevent future floods.

More than a month after torrential rain flooded hundreds of West Island homes, residents say the neighbouring municipalities are taking different approaches to preparing for future storms.

Pointe-Claire has announced grants of up to $5,000 for homeowners who make their properties more resilient to flooding and secured nearly $6.9 million in provincial funding for flood-mitigation projects, while D.D.O. residents say they’re still waiting to hear what their city plans to do to reduce the risk of another disaster.

Now, they fear they’ll have to wait even longer: a planned Aug. 6 information session was cancelled after a proposed class-action was filed over the June flooding.

“I’m less angry than I am exhausted.”

That’s how Joan McDonald describes feeling weeks after floodwater tore through her D.D.O. home.

McDonald had hoped the city’s information session would provide answers, not only about what happened during the June 20 storm, but what the municipality planned to do before the next one.

“I understand there’s a legal process,” she said. “But the mayor keeps talking about transparency and helping residents, then suddenly the meeting is postponed because of the lawsuit. It feels like they’re afraid to say anything.”

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The proposed class action alleges D.D.O. and the City of Montreal failed to adequately prepare for the June 20 storm, which flooded hundreds of homes across the West Island. The Gazette previously reported the lawsuit seeks damages and a court order requiring improvements to municipal flood-protection infrastructure, including stormwater management systems and retention basins.

For McDonald, however, the lawsuit is secondary.

“What I want to know is what they’re actually going to do,” she said. “We know there will be another storm someday.”

Several residents interviewed by The Gazette pointed to neighbouring Pointe-Claire, where the city recently launched a grant program offering homeowners up to $5,000 for projects that reduce stormwater runoff on private property, including rain gardens, permeable paving and other measures designed to reduce pressure on municipal drainage systems.

Earlier this month, Quebec also announced nearly $6.9 million in funding for Pointe-Claire through its OASIS climate adaptation program. The money will support green infrastructure and stormwater management projects intended to reduce flood risks during increasingly intense rainfall events.

Those announcements have left some D.D.O. residents wondering whether their municipality is planning similar measures.

That includes Shirley Dahan, whose split-level home flooded for the second time in less than two years.

After attending a July council meeting, Dahan said she left with little sense of what the municipality intended to do next.

“It was a lot of: ‘We’ll get back to you,’ ” she said.

Dahan had hoped the information session, where city officials said engineers would explain how the flooding occurred and discuss possible solutions, would finally provide some clarity.

“They waited until the last minute,” she said. “We were finally going to have experts there and be able to ask questions.”

Dahan believes the flooding on her street was caused by overwhelmed municipal infrastructure, rather than shortcomings on individual properties.

“It came through the main drain on the street,” she said. “People who had installed French drains (a drainage system that helps direct water away from a home’s foundation) and had done everything they were supposed to do still got flooded.”

In a statement, D.D.O. Mayor Alex Bottausci said the city had intended to use the Aug. 6 meeting to answer residents’ questions, but the proposed class action changed the legal context.

“Unfortunately, the filing of an application for authorization to institute a class action has changed the context in which the city can communicate publicly regarding issues that are the subject of ongoing judicial proceedings,” he said.

Bottausci said postponing the meeting was “the most appropriate course of action” to protect the city’s interests, while respecting the judicial process.

He said the city’s operational response has not changed and it remains committed to providing factual information where appropriate and re-engaging directly with residents when circumstances permit.

For Dahan, however, residents will ultimately judge the city’s response not by another public meeting, but by whether it takes visible steps to reduce the risk of future flooding.

“I don’t want money,” she said, “I just want them to fix the issue.”