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Unbeknownst to many, partly because it’s still years away from being done, the city has had a long-standing infrastructure project in the works since 2012. It’s the largest and most significant stormwater management project in Toronto’s history, according to the city, but inflationary costs and budget constraints have forced it to drag its feet.

Even if other levels of government gave º£½ÇÉçÇø¹ÙÍøbillions of dollars tomorrow, city officials say it would still take about a decade to finish.

“WhatÌýwe’re trying to do is build (tunnels) that will capture overflow and store it during a large storm,”ÌýsaidÌýLou Di Gironimo, º£½ÇÉçÇø¹ÙÍøWater’s general manager, of the . “Then after the storm subsides, we can release it and send it to a treatment facility.”

The $3.7-billion undertaking is part of the city’s larger $4.3-billion , approved by council in 2003,Ìýwhich primarily aims to protect water quality in the city’s waterways since roughly a quarter of º£½ÇÉçÇø¹ÙÍøreliesÌýon a singleÌýpipe that combines stormwater and sewage whenÌýexcess rainfall overwhelms the city’s aging infrastructure.

Specifically targeting the Lower Don River, Taylor Massey Creek and Toronto’s Inner Harbour, a series of connected underground tunnels — the Coxwell Bypass, Taylor-Massey Creek and the Inner Harbour West tunnels, respectively — will span 22 kilometres across the city with 11 storage shafts, 27 connection points to sewers and seven storage tanks.Ìý

Once the rain-snow-wastewater mix is captured and stored, it will be transported down to the Ashbridges Bay Treatment Plant through pumping stations, where it will be cleaned then poured into the lake through a large outfall.

Overall, the project will add over 650,000 cubic metres of storage. Coupled with the , which aims to improve sewer capacity and reduce stormwater that enters the system,Ìýthis increasedÌýstorage also means the projects will “significantly reduce the number of properties that are impacted during a storm event,” Di Gironimo said.

However, the DR&CW project and all its various components won’t be completed for about 15 years.Ìý

As of July, the Coxwell Bypass tunnel, which is the first stage of this massive system and began construction in 2018, is 95 per cent done,ÌýDi Gironimo said.

“It’s frustrating,” saidÌýJason Thistlethwaite, an associate professor at the University of Waterloo’s school of environment, enterprise and development. “But my lens, as someone who is a champion of more resilient cities, is … just do something. That’s where I’m at given how much we struggle to get this stuff done.”

As with most large city projects,ÌýToronto’s tattered financesÌýhave weighed it down. Post-pandemic inflation didn’t help, either. As grocery prices and gas went up, so did the cost of construction materials along with global supply chain issues. In 2019,ÌýDi Gironimo said they estimated the cost of theÌýDR&CW projects at about $2.5 billion over a decade. It’s now risen by over $1.2 billion.

“Municipalities are more or less on their own,” said Thistlethwaite, noting the inconsistency of climate change increasing the frequency and intensity of torrential downpours meanwhile resources for cities haven’t increased along with it. “Each level of government tends to point fingers at each other, kind of like that Spider-Man meme.”

At last month’s council meeting, city staff pointed out that accelerating flood mitigation projects such as this one means they need more money, either “raising rates” or “cutting back on other programs which we wouldn’t recommend.” They noted a third alternative: federal and provincial help.

Richard Mullin, spokesperson for Ontario’s ministry of natural resources and forestry, said the province is working with the city to Ìýwhich areÌýlocations with degraded environmental quality compared to others in the Great Lake Basin.

While there is no direct financial assistance for theÌýDR&CW projects, Mullin said º£½ÇÉçÇø¹ÙÍøcan use part of the $9 billion being freed up from a deal, which includedÌýtheÌýGardiner Expressway and Don Valley Parkway upload, that was struck between the province and city in November,Ìýon top of another $5 millionÌý specifically to build and upgradeÌýstorm and wastewater infrastructure. Those billions, however, are also meant to be allocated between other competing priorities in the city such as building affordable homes and fixing transit.

Thistlethwaite said it’s a “tough” situation “politically,” and a key tool that’s long been missing in Toronto’s arsenal is a comprehensive, updated and publicly-availableÌýflood map for people and governments to understand the risks.

“Without that knowledge, we struggle to hold our local governments and our provincial and federal counterparts accountable,”Ìýhe said. “We’re not leveraging our democracy.”

Even if the billions of dollars were granted in a lump sum and work could be done concurrently, it would likely take about 10 years to complete, Di Gironimo told the Star. This is because of various “project interdependencies” and timing construction of critical phases along with factors outside the city’s control such as engineering consultations, the construction industry and the time it takes for permits, approvals, procurement and tender, among other factors.

But º£½ÇÉçÇø¹ÙÍøshouldn’t be relying on this one project to save the day, saidÌýKathryn Bakos, managing director of finance and resilience at the University of Waterloo’s Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation. That’s becauseÌýflood mitigation is a shared responsibilityÌýbetween communities andÌýÌýwhileÌý.

“How can we give information to homeowners to put (flood mitigation) measures in place? Subsidy programs are great, but there’s always low uptake,” Bakos said. (Mayor Olivia Chow’s successful motion at councilÌýasked staff to come up with various ways to address this by the end of the year, including incentives for homeowners and a potential stormwater charge for commercial and industrial properties.)

Whatever the city’s plans are, Bakos emphasized “any infrastructure project you’re planning for, you should be planning for the future … I’m talking 50 to 100 years down the way,” given the future holds “more extremes and more variabilities” such as dry, hot conditions and extreme rainfall or storm surges.

“There will always be a degree of uncertainty about future conditions,”ÌýDi Gironimo said in response. “We design the infrastructure based on the best available data, models and information we have now … Planning for future conditions requires balancing (that) with the need for flexibility to accommodate unforeseen changes.”

As forÌýflooding in the Don River and on the Don Valley Parkway, the DR&CW projects may help reduce flooding but it doesn’t necessarily mean that will eliminate it completely given the highway’s proximity to the river valley and the “low-lying reaches of certain sections,” Di Gironimo said.

Overall, “you’re never going to 100 per cent prevent risk in the system if you have these major floods, but there is plenty we can do to reduce risk,” Bakos said, echoing Di Gironimo’s comments aboutÌýhowÌýMother Nature “always wins” and will “always have a storm that’s bigger than all the infrastructure we can build.”