The City of Toronto has a $2-million annual grant program to help Rockcliffe-Smythe residents recover from basement flooding. So far, it’s distributed just under $60,000 — less than 3% of the annual budget.

The Rockcliffe No Fault Grant for Basement Flooding Damages Program provides “owners of certain residential properties within the Rockcliffe Special Policy Area” with grants for uninsured flooding damage to their basements that was caused by a storm event. City Council approved the recurring program in July 2022. Out of 24 submissions, 13 Rockcliffe-Smythe households received funding since the No Fault Grant program officially launched in November 2024, according to Lou Di Gironimo, general manager of Toronto Water, in a statement to The Green Line. The city said applications can be submitted up to two years after an eligible storm event, meaning the total number of claims may still increase.

In order for the city to count a natural event as a qualifying flood, a storm event must overwhelm the sewage system, increase 311 calls and result in service delays.

The Rockcliffe No Fault Grant distributed $59,880 in funding to date, according to a Freedom of Information request The Green Line received from a Rockcliffe-Smythe resident. The most a Rockcliffe-Smythe resident can receive from the grant is $7,500. Di Gironimo said that since the program launched, there have been two qualifying floods in July and August 2024.

But local resident Antía González Ben says her community is “traumatized.” Every time it rains, González Ben watches her neighbour spray holy water around her house and pray to steer water away from flooding her property.

The west-end neighbourhood was built on the path of Black Creek’s natural floodplain. That’s why many homes here experience surface and basement flooding during storms — such as the July 8, 2013 event and more recently, in July and August 2024 — due to a combination of riverine flooding, inadequate surface drainage and overloading of the city’s sewer systems, according to the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority.

Now, the Rockcliffe Flood Mitigation Projects have begun, aiming to help move water away from homes, reduce sewer backups, and produce sewer channel and bridge infrastructure upgrades. Construction kicked off in March of this year with tree removal in Smythe Park, two years after the Rockcliffe Riverine Flood Mitigation Project Municipal Class Environmental Assessment study was completed in 2023. Then, this fall, the Jane Street Bridge over Black Creek will be widened and replaced.

But some residents are concerned about the plan’s engineering and have been advocating for more community consultation through publicity, park rallies, block parties and more.

“We’re seen as a problem kid, the problem neighbourhood that is always speaking back to the city officials.”

ANTÍA GONZÁLEZ BEN, ROCKCLIFFE-SMYTHE RESIDENT

She moved into her house in 2023, and less than a year later, her family faced one of Toronto’s worst rainfalls in history when 100 mm of rain fell across the GTA on July 16, 2024.

That day, González Ben immediately called 311 with a flood claim.

But when she applied to the city-wide Basement Flooding Protection Subsidy Program, officials rejected her claim, saying that her property had already used the lifetime subsidy maximum amount for backwater valve installation since the previous owners of her house had already claimed the full amount.

She also applied for the Rockcliffe No Fault Grant to help with other flood damage repairs and was denied again. The city said it had no record of her 311 call, according to a document that González Ben provided to The Green Line.

To date, she’s been charged roughly $34,000 for repairs, which are still going on two years later. These include redoing her basement completely with new walls and flooring, and disinfecting her entire basement from sewage water.

Since then, González Ben and her family don’t even run the washing machine or shower when it rains because sewage water can come up from the city if it’s flooding, which is a concern for those in the flood-prone area.

“If the city infrastructure worked well, our house wouldn’t be flooded. But because the city does not protect you, you have to protect yourself,” she said.

“I would talk to neighbours — older neighbours who have been living here for decades. I saw so many people cry within three [to] four minutes of talking…because there’s so much trauma.”

González Ben was part of the Black Creek Flood Coalition group that asked neighbours for signatures to request an emergency response plan, which would equip Rockcliffe-Smythe residents with emergency response kits, including generators, pumps, hoses, cords and other tools. The city rejected the petition, which 200 residents signed.

“No staff would be supportive of that, nor would our legal staff. It’s just something the city would not do,” Di Girononimo said in a recording of a private meeting with Rockcliffe-Smythe residents provided to The Green Line. “It’s private property, and homeowners have to take responsibility for their property.”

Rockcliffe-Smythe resident John Thadickal said it’s hard to imagine how bad the flooding can get unless you experience it first-hand.

“Just ask for one bucketful of the stuff that fills my basement into [your] own living space,” he said. “Nobody can imagine what it is like to have sewage fill up your basement. How would you try to understand that unless you go through it?”

Thadickal has lived in the neighbourhood since 1983 and experienced his first flood in 1984.

“That is when I [first] contacted the city, and it’s been going on ever since,” he said. “No accountability. Nobody seems to care.”

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