The city needs to increase funding flows to better manage Barrie’s storm waters.
Councillors gave initial approval Monday night to the stormwater asset management plan, which identifies the operations, maintenance work and expansion of $1.25 billion worth of stormwater infrastructure in Barrie, including storm sewers, culverts, ponds and watercourses.
City council will consider final approval of the plan at its Feb. 8 meeting.
The stormwater asset management plan is designed to lessen the gap between what the city spends on stormwater management, and what it needs to spend.
“The infrastructure gap that’s here is quite obvious and significant,” Mayor Jeff Lehman said.
“I’m sure every municipality suffers the same strain when it comes to funding gaps,” Coun. Gary Harvey said.
Tom Reeve, the city’s senior asset management planning co-ordinator, said this plan could shrink that gap.
“There’s a large difference between what we’ve historically been spending… and what the identified need is,” he said. “The proposed spending goes some distance to close this gap, but not all the way, which results in an infrastructure gap.
“If we continue with historic spending levels, we will be under-funding by about $30 million per year,” Reeve added. “There’s still an overall gap identified, however it has been reduced to around $11.7 million (annually). If revenues don’t materialize or if stormwater projects are delayed in favour of other needs, this gap could increase.”
It will cost $451 million to sustain the current level of stormwater services during the next 10 years — $232 million for growth and upgrades, $138 for renewal, $65 million for maintenance and $16 million for pond clean-out. More than half of that total could be paid for by new development, but the bill is still substantial.
Historically, the city has under-spent on stormwater management, increasing the risk of flooding, infrastructure failure and environmental damage. The stormwater asset management plan forecasts continued under-investment during the next decade, although the gap in that time is much less than the historic ones.
The city’s stormwater assets includes those that can be seen — ponds, ditches, the water courses — and those you don’t see, such as storm sewers.
“Stormwater assets are required to protect people and property from flooding,” Reeve said. “Although we may have a lot of new stormwater infrastructure now, we could be facing a bump in the future as this large group of infrastructure ages together. One of the values of asset management plans is we can look ahead and plan for this need.”
The physical condition of Barrie’s stormwater infrastructure is generally good, with 79 per cent considered in fair or good condition. This means that the city has time to build reserves to fund storm sewer repair and replacement in the future when the assets reach end-of-life.
On average, Barrie’s sewers, culverts, and manufactured treatment devices still have approximately 75 per cent of service life remaining, based on material and age. The remaining life for ponds is estimated at less than 25 per cent. These ponds are used for flood control and function to reduce sedimentation prior to discharge into receiving waters, in order to maintain or restore acceptable water quality standards for protecting the natural environment.
Barrie’s stormwater ponds are a $100-million problem, according to city staff. More than 50 per cent are in poor or very poor condition, reflecting a historical lack of maintenance. The city has been working during the past decade to address this through the pond cleanout program, and must continue to ensure the problem does not get bigger, staff say.
As part of its 2021 operating and capital budget the city has approved $1.5 million this year, and for the next three years, for stormwater treatment pond maintenance. The funding comes equally from the tax capital reserve and the federal gas-tax reserve.
Stormwater management ponds require more frequent maintenance to keep them functioning properly. Work required consists primarily of removing sediment that has accumulated over time. Historically, the city has not had funding to keep up with pond clean-out and as a result, there is a large backlog of stormwater ponds. While there has been increased investment in maintaining stormwater ponds in recent years, the backlog of work still exists.
Capacity of channels, pipes and culverts is a major factor in controlling and mitigating flooding. In 2019, the city completed a Barrie-wide drainage master plan to document the existing deficiencies and barriers to growth; it identified more than $400 million in growth and upgrade projects required to meet 2041 growth targets.
And the city has already spent millions of dollars upgrading and enlarging its stormwater drainage under and around Lakeshore Drive to ensure the new waterfront road doesn’t flood.
“We’re unique in Barrie, in terms of our stormwater needs because of the lake and the number of creeks we have,” said Kelly Oakley, the city’s manager of planning and asset management.
The city is responsible for mitigating flooding and ensuring clean stormwater runoff enters Lake Simcoe, essentially dealing with rainfall and runoff from the hard surfaces created from an urban environment.
Deputy Mayor Barry Ward said stormwater management doesn’t get the credit it deserves.
“In all my years on council, and there have been many of them, I have been to celebrations for openings of all kinds of city infrastructure,” he said. “I’ve been to bridges, to subdivisions, to rec centres, to soccer pitches, just about everything, and I’ve never been to a single function involving stormwater management.
“It kind of says how underappreciated it is. Which is really unfortunate, because it’s pretty clear — it’s one of the most important services we offer as a city, both in terms of preventing flooding and keeping the water in Little Lake and Kempenfelt Bay clean.”
