Essex Progressive Conservative MPP Anthony Leardi has criticized the Town of Essex following last week's flooding in Harrow and Colchester.
Environment Canada said over seven inches of rain fell over the Harrow region on Sept. 24, leaving roads and some basements flooded.
The storm was very similar to one that hit over two days in Aug. 2023, when 214 mm of rain, or 8.4 inches fell, prompting Environment Canada to call it a "one in 100 year event".
Leardi said the incident was devastating and he felt for affected homeowners.
Speaking on AM800's The Dan MacDonald Show, Leardi added that he was angry because the flooding issue had occurred before.
"I'm angry because I'm wondering why the mayor and the council of the Municipality of Essex seem to have taken no steps to address the infrastructure deficiencies in this area of Harrow and Colchester. It makes me angry," Leardi said.
Leardi made the claim that Essex did not, and have not, taken advantage of funding through the provincial second water systems fund.
"The money is there and it's massive million dollars of money. The Town of Essex failed to apply. Didn't even do the paperwork and submit the paperwork. In fact, not only did they not submit the paperwork, they actually passed a resolution saying they wouldn't do the paperwork," he said.
Leardi said the town previously requested meetings with him, but expressed that he wasn't happy with the topic.
"The mayor and the council of Essex want to talk about The Beer Store. Here's what I want to talk about, what are you going to do to fix the infrastructure problem's in your municipality? There are people in your municipality with water in their basements as we speak today. I don't want to talk about The Beer Store, I want to talk about how you're going to fix the flooding problems in your municipality," Leardi said.
In August, it was announced that The Beer Store in Harrow would close in October, upsetting Mayor Sherry Bondy.
Bondy told AM800's The Shift with guest host Kyle Horner that she felt Leardi's comments were a personal attack on her, town staff and council, when they are trying to address flooding concerns.
"We're constantly doing messaging to give residents tools to help with their own individual homes. Unfortunately there are a lot of low lying areas that the provincial government should not have allowed the homes to be built way back before my time, so this attack, it felt like an attack when you listen to what our MPP said," Bondy said.
Bondy said the funding program Leardi discussed was the Housing-Enabling Water Systems Fund, which is intended to build more homes, not protect homes that are already built.
"The problem that we have is we had a lot of rain in a short period of time, and building more homes isn't going to solve that, and we have applied for grants in the past. Currently we're not applying for a grant to build more homes in the Colchester area because we are listening to residents concerns about building more homes in the Colchester area," she said.
Bondy said all infrastructure functioned as intended during the storm, however the town was still undertaking efforts to improve flood mitigation and climate resiliency.
She said the town has submitted a grant application through the Municipal Housing Infrastructure Program - Health and Safety Water Stream to upgrade Harrow’s pumping station.
In response to Leardi's comments about not wanting a meeting to discuss The Beer Store closure, Bondy said she still wants to address it with him as she's concerned about affected employees.
"I can have multiple concerns all at once. I can worry about flooding, I can worry about healthcare, like we've met with him before when we talked about the Harrow Health Centre needing doctors. We need to open these doors, not beat each other up in the media," Bondy said.
According to Bondy, she and Leardi are scheduled to sit down in the coming weeks.
Bondy added that the town will hold a budget meeting on Thursday Oct. 2 at the Harrow Arena where residents can inquire about flooding issues at the meeting.
That meeting is scheduled to take place from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.
A second meeting will be held on Nov. 26 to discuss local drainage issues. It will also take place at the Harrow Arena from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.