The Gazette previously reported<\/a> the lawsuit seeks damages and a court order requiring improvements to municipal flood-protection infrastructure, including stormwater management systems and retention basins.<\/p>\nFor McDonald, however, the lawsuit is secondary.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I want to know is what they\u2019re actually going to do,\u201d she said. \u201cWe know there will be another storm someday.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Those announcements have left some D.D.O. residents wondering whether their municipality is planning similar measures.<\/p>\n
That includes Shirley Dahan, whose split-level home flooded for the second time in less than two years.<\/p>\n
After attending a July council meeting, Dahan said she left with little sense of what the municipality intended to do next.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a lot of: \u2018We\u2019ll get back to you,\u2019 \u201d she said.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey waited until the last minute,\u201d she said. \u201cWe were finally going to have experts there and be able to ask questions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dahan believes the flooding on her street was caused by overwhelmed municipal infrastructure, rather than shortcomings on individual properties.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt came through the main drain on the street,\u201d she said. \u201cPeople who had installed French drains (a drainage system that helps direct water away from a home\u2019s foundation) and had done everything they were supposed to do still got flooded.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a statement, D.D.O. Mayor Alex Bottausci said the city had intended to use the Aug. 6 meeting to answer residents\u2019 questions, but the proposed class action changed the legal context.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnfortunately, 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,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Bottausci said postponing the meeting was \u201cthe most appropriate course of action\u201d to protect the city\u2019s interests, while respecting the judicial process.<\/p>\n
He said the city\u2019s operational response has not changed and it remains committed to providing factual information where appropriate and re-engaging directly with residents when circumstances permit.<\/p>\n
For Dahan, however, residents will ultimately judge the city\u2019s response not by another public meeting, but by whether it takes visible steps to reduce the risk of future flooding.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want money,\u201d she said, \u201cI just want them to fix the issue.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Some Dollard-des-Ormeaux residents say they\u2019re feeling frustrated and left behind after the city cancelled an information session about…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":837542,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194292],"tags":[49,48,2338,92296,229608],"class_list":["post-837541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-montreal","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-montreal","tag-news-videos","tag-quebec-flooding"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/837541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=837541"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/837541\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/837542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=837541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=837541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=837541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}