Tuesday, April 15, 2025
Mayor Drew Dilkens and Ward 6 Councillor Jo-Anne Gignac were joined by City administration to highlight the construction on the new St. Rose Stormwater Pumping Station currently underway, and to address concerns regarding the City of Windsor’s recently launched Stormwater Financing Plan.
St. Rose Pumping Station Project Update
Work is already underway on the new stormwater pumping station at St. Rose Beach Park. The new pumping station will be situated almost entirely below grade, centralized within the eastern portion of the site, and will include an above-grade electrical building, and an emergency back-up generator — with an architectural enclosure to mitigate sound and help respect the integrity of the existing residential area. Construction of the new flood resiliency project began in the back half of 2024 and is slated for completion by fall 2026.
The project represents a $22 million investment through the City’s Sewer and Coastal Flood Protection Master Plan (SMP) and is a proactive effort to protect neighborhoods from future flooding, improve resilience, and ensure that vital infrastructure keeps pace with the city’s evolving needs and unprecedented growth and development. Situated in the Riverside area, the new pumping station will provide an enhanced level of service for the areas between Riverside Drive to the VIA Rail Station, from Ford Boulevard to east of Lauzon Road, to mitigate the risk of flooding resulting from the type of extreme weather events that have increased in frequency over the last decade.
This significant investment in critical stormwater infrastructure upgrades is intended to help relieve local street and basement flooding for more than 1,100 residential and business properties in the Riverside area and is a key part of the City’s broader multi-phase strategy to address the risks posed by the increasing number of extreme weather events in recent years.
“Construction of the new St. Rose Stormwater Pumping Station represents another significant investment in growth towards Building Windsor’s Flood Resilient Future,” said Mayor Drew Dilkens. “Guided by the SMP, projects like these demonstrate the City of Windsor’s long-term vision to keep people and property safe.”
“This project will go a long way towards protecting our community against flooding,” said Councillor Jo-Anne Gignac, representing Ward 6. “It is not only about protecting homes and businesses today but about preparing our city for the challenges of tomorrow. By improving our stormwater infrastructure, we are working to ensure the safety, security, and prosperity of this area and beyond for generations to come.”
Mayor Identifies Path Forward to Reset Stormwater Financing Plan
At this event, Mayor Dilkens raised an upcoming Council report that will detail administration’s review and analysis of the City’s recently launched Stormwater Financing Plan. That review was requested through Mayoral Decision MD 13-2025.
Launched in 2025, the City’s new approach separated the previous sewer surcharge into distinct wastewater and stormwater components. The goal of the new fair-share plan was to save most property owners money by shifting costs for stormwater management to properties with large non-absorbent surfaces like big-box stores with large parking lots. Based on projections and modelling, Council anticipated that, compared to 2024, the vast majority of city residents and many small and medium-sized businesses would see a reduction in their total wastewater and stormwater costs in 2025. In requesting the review, Mayor Dilkens noted that City Council approved the Stormwater Financing Plan with the understanding that residential homeowner billings were expected to decrease on an annual basis for combined waste/storm water charges, and that some residents had expressed concerns indicating that they have experienced an increase to their recent bills following the program roll-out.
Considering the evolving situation, Mayor Dilkens directed City administration to report back to City Council regarding the program with a detailed analysis of the impact on pre-existing residential ENWIN customers as a result of the separation of the wastewater and stormwater billings. Administration was also asked to include the number of homeowners currently on septic systems for which no wastewater charge was previously charged and the total monthly stormwater revenue now being collected from these homeowners. Finally, the Mayor asked administration to provide City Council with all reasonable options for consideration to affect the expected decrease.
With that report anticipated to be before City Council later in April, Mayor Dilkens and City administration have been meeting regularly to identify a path forward, with the Mayor announcing that he will ask City Council to approve a reset to the plan that will include the following:
- A credit for residential wastewater customers who, because of low water usage, are seeing an increase to their monthly bills;
- A phased-in billing approach for all residential customers currently using a septic system for wastewater removal;
- A reduction to the annual charge for cemeteries, churches, and other designated places of worship; and
- A one-time transitional credit for all non-residential and business property owners.
“Certainly, I am not happy with the way the Stormwater Financing Plan is landing,” said Mayor Drew Dilkens. “I made a commitment, along with City Council, to the residents of the city that they were going to see a decrease in their bill. That is the way it is supposed to be. We began this process back in 2018. The goal was to ensure folks pay their fair share through a system that allows us to implement our Sewer Master Plan to make improvements like you’re seeing out of the St. Rose Pumping Station, at the Lou Romano Water Reclamation Plant, and through projects across the entire city. We committed to ending basement flooding, and we are working deliberately and strategically to realize that goal. That was the impetus behind the whole program update. There were multiple checkpoints with City Council throughout the years. We delayed the implementation by an entire year to ensure things would run smoothly relative to this complex conversion. Unfortunately, for some components of the billing plan, that has not been the case. We knew we would have some issues with folks on septic systems, and at cemeteries and churches; however, on the residential side we did not expect that some residential customers would experience increases, where I committed to 99% of residents realizing savings. Homeowners should be paying less under this new system. We are going to make this right.”
At the meeting of City Council scheduled for April 28, 2025, Mayor Dilkens will ask Council to approve this identified path forward to address concerns with the Stormwater Financing Plan’s rollout, and to effectively reset the initiative.
Following severe flooding events in 2016 and 2017, the $5 billion 50-plus year SMP was completed in 2020 to help the City understand the causes of local flooding, evaluate short-term and long-term solutions, and complete preliminary design and cost estimates for drainage improvements. The plan identified numerous future projects to address the City’s flood risk reduction needs.
To date, approximately $419 million in funding is available for immediate use, including funding through the federal government’s Disaster Mitigation and Adaption Fund (DMAF) 1 and 4 programs and other grant sources. As of February 2025, approximately $97.5 million of this funding has been spent, including for major capital projects within the SMP flooding solution priority list and DMAF Programs.
To date, major projects completed through the SMP include but are not limited to the following:
- Matthew Brady, Phase 2 (Edgar to Tranby) and Phase 3 (Wyandotte to St. Rose)
- Belle Isle View, Phase 1 (Wyandotte to St. Rose) and Phase 2 (St. Rose to Edgar)
- Tranby Avenue Reconstruction (Parkview to Isabelle)
- Tranby Park Stormwater Management
- Eastlawn Avenue (Wyandotte to Edgar)
- Parent-McDougall Storm Relief Sewer Works – Giles Boulevard Storm Relief Sewer (Langlois to Gladstone)
- Dominion Boulevard Phase 2 (Northwood to Ojibway)
- Backflow Prevention Measures at Flood Protection Landform Barrier Crossings
Major projects currently under construction through the SMP include the following:
- Jefferson Drainage Area Improvements and Sewer Separation Project
- Seal Maintenance Hole Covers
- St. Paul Pumping Station
- Lauzon Parkway Sewer and Road Rehabilitation (Hawthorne to Cantelon)
- Prince Road Storm Relief System Outlet to Detroit River
- St. Rose Pumping Station
In 2025, the City has budgeted to spend $62.7 million, part of $485.2 million being invested in sewer and stormwater upgrades. These investments are a major component of the 10-year capital plan approved in this year’s capital budget, which invests $2.24 billion to sustain the city’s future growth and development.
Image credit: The City of Windsor.
