Toronto council votes to ask federal, provincial governments for storm funds

TORONTO – Toronto’s city council has voted in favour of asking the federal and provincial governments for money to help cover the cost of the pre-Christmas ice storm.

During the second day of their special meeting today, council voted unanimously to ask both Ottawa and Queen’s Park to each pony up one-third of the cost of cleanup.

It also voted to ask the Ontario government to declare Canada’s largest city a “disaster area” – a move required to qualify for funding to deal with the havoc wreaked by two major storms in 2013.

The recommendation was made by city staff who advised Toronto to seek financial help from Ontario and the federal government for the storms’ $171-million damage bill.

That figure includes at least $106 million in damage from the ice storm and $65.2 million in costs related to a severe rainstorm on July 8 that flooded parts of the city.

Toronto did not declare a state of emergency during the ice storm which downed hydro lines, cut power to hundreds of thousands and stalled road and air travel for days.

Mayor Rob Ford – who late last year had many of his powers stripped from him by council _ repeatedly said he did not see the need to declare an emergency.

Monday’s council meeting is scheduled to conclude by 4 p.m. due to a religious observance, with the group now working to vote on having a third party review into how the city dealt with the storm.