The Township of Alfred and Plantagenet, and the City of Clarence Rockland are among 10 municipalities receiving part of $5 million in disaster funding, after a severe windstorm rolled across Eastern and Central Ontario in May 2022.
The funding is from the Ontario government’s Municipal Disaster Recovery Assistance (MDRA) program and is meant to assist with further expenses related to damage from the May 21 2022 derecho windstorm. In Prescott and Russell counties, the damage was most severe in Alfred and Plantagenet and Clarence-Rockland.
Ontario’s MDRA program helps municipalities address extraordinary emergency response costs, as well as damage to essential municipal property or infrastructure such as bridges, roads and public buildings, as a result of a natural disaster.
The severe weather resulted in significant municipal costs for emergency response, including providing shelters and cleaning up fallen trees and branches along roads, as well as for repairs to damage to municipal infrastructure.
Alfred and Plantagenet is receiving up to $809,000 in MDRA funding and up to $751,000 will be provided to Clarence-Rockland. The total MDRA funding for the two municipalities is $1,560,000.
The remainder of the funding is going to affected municipalities in the counties of Renfrew, Frontenac, Lennox and Addington, Hastings, Peterborough, and Durham Region.
“The Municipal Disaster Recovery Assistance program is an important source of funding for municipalities that have suffered extensive damage due to unexpected natural disasters,” said Steve Clark, Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing.
Eligible municipal expenses under the MDRA program may include operating and capital costs that are over and above regular municipal budgets and are directly linked to the disaster. A municipality may be eligible for MDRA assistance if its disaster-related costs reach a threshold of three per cent of its own-purpose taxation levy.
