Province helps fund ice storm clean-up

The province was in the sunshine city announcing another $5 million in funding to help communities like Orillia prep for emergencies.

The clean up from this spring’s ice storm continues in many communities in Simcoe County and Muskoka. Orillia was one of the hardest hit and the mayor says the price for the clean up continues to increase.

“We’re looking at probably a couple of million-dollars probably one to two million maybe closer to two million-dollars its probably our out of pocket. The province has a fairly generous formula to cover the first 75%,” said Orillia Mayor Don McIsaac.

Today, the province was in the Sunshine City announcing another $5-million in funding to help communities like Orillia to offset the cost of preparation and response to such emergencies.

“In total 114 total recipients including the City of Orillia are receiving the 2024-25 community emergency preparedness grant,” said Minister of Emergency Preparedness and Response Jill Dunlop.

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The money will be used to help cover the costs of local training, the purchase of critical equipment and the improvement of infrastructure.

Chris Ferry is Orillia’s fire chief and has been at the forefront of the ice storm response. He says the money will be used to buy a drone to survey future emergencies and a new pump for future flooding.

“Any money to buy additional and new equipment would always be welcome for us. With our drone that we purchased we can also send images back to our EOC so we can see from the Emergency Operations Center what is going on at the site,” said Orillia Fire Chief Chris Ferry.

Orillia’s fire chief says the recent ice storm was a good reminder for everyone across the region to have an Emergency Response Kit at the ready. He reminds people we are entering the spring storm season and so people should be prepared for almost anything.