Windsor mayor asks Trudeau for flood funding

Big city mayors gathered in Ottawa to deliver their wish list to the prime minister before the Liberals craft their federal budget, and Windsor mayor Drew Dilkens asked about disaster mitigation funds.

Dilkens said the mayors agreed on the topics and divided up the questions he asked about the disaster mitigation adaptation fund.

"We appreciate the $2 billion that was put into the fund to kick it off, but we know that that is a far cry from what the need is out there," he recalled telling Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

The reason Dilkens thinks the fund is far from what is needed is because of Windsor's own storm water master plan the first phase of which he saidis already approaching$90 million.

The amount is only going to grow with more elements added by the end of this year.

"[Windsor is] just one community out of hundreds across the country that will need support through that fund," he said.

Other topics the mayors decided to bring up with Trudeau are social housing, opioids, mental health and transit.

"I was delighted that he was well-briefed and well-informed on why these issues are important to mayors across the country," said Dilkens.

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Even so, he said nothing has been promised immediately, but he understandsgovernment would need to consider many aspects before deciding on firm numbers.

The next steps, said Dilkens, would be for the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) to keep pressing the ministries and federal government on funding.

He pointed to the federal funds Windsor was able to get for transit the addition of 24 new buses and said the FCM had been successful at pushing for more money.

"There are a lot of positives that come out of this, but you never expect them to happen in the middle of the meeting," said Dilkens.