CANAL FLOODING LEAVES SHOPS LOOKING TO CITY HALL FOR SOLUTIONS

STORMS, FLOODING CAUSING PROBLEMS FOR LOCAL BUSINESSES

As climate change continues to hurl more and more violent storms at Port Colborne, environmentalists and business owners say the city needs to act quicker to adopt climate change policies. In the meantime, it's local businesses who are increasingly bearing the brunt of the wild windstorms, like the one that tore through the city over the holidays.

"When the power finally came back on and we got here, there was about four feet of water in the basement," recalled Jessica Jacobson, who runs the Water's Edge Day Spa in Port Colborne.

As the name suggests, the spa sits along the edge of the canal. Overlooking the canal on West Street has always been a major selling point for shops in that area, but increasingly these days, it's become a liability, as wind storms cause the canal to crest and flood nearby businesses.

For Jacobson, the Christmas storm flooding her spa was only the start of a series of cascading problems.

"The flooded basement blew out the furnace, so it was -8 degrees in here that day," she said. The pipes were frozen, of course, and when the furnace company arrived to install a new one, it turned out the particular model needed for the building was out of stock and back-ordered for weeks.

"We were fully booked with appointments, so we had to do something," said Jacobson, who began rounding up space heaters that day in order to try and get the shop warmed up. They managed to get the spa up to about 4 degrees, and after informing clients of the troubles, she was surprised to find that most of them wanted to come in for their appointment despite the frosty temperatures.

"We had clients covered in heated blankets as we did their nails," she recalled, but it ended up being a losing battle. "By noon that day we had to call it, it was just too cold for us to keep working. We couldn't feel our fingertips and our toes were frozen, so we had to close and cancel appointments for the next two days."

This isn't the first time the canal has crested and flooded businesses in the area. Directly across the street from the spa, the Lakeside Martial Arts Club was the victim during the Halloween storm back in 2019. During that storm, the flooding from the canal leaked into their dojo and destroyed $15,000 worth of equipment.

Constant flooding is putting a strain on downtown businesses, which is part of the reason the city's environmental advisory committee (EAC) is pushing city hall to adopt climate change policies in its official strategic plan, which is up for renewal this year.

"At a meeting last year, council voted to accept our recommendations, which is a step in the right direction, because the previous strategic plan didn't address climate change at all," said George McKibbon, chair of the EAC. "There were recommendations in there for how to address both shoreline flooding and flooding from the canal."

The city's chief administrative officer, Scott Luey, said work is underway to adopt those recommendations into the city's strategic plan.

"We have a solid base plan for how to continue our strategic plan," said Luey during a recent council meeting. "The new council will want to put their fingers in the batter, and this is the perfect opportunity to bring in things that maybe should have been considered the first time, but were left out, so this is a chance to shore that up."

Once the new plan is finished, local business owners say they want to see that translate into real work, such as infrastructure upgrades to prevent flooding in the downtown core.

"Climate change should be addressed by the city in its plan, but city hall also needs to act on those recommendations, not just put them in a strategic plan and pat themselves on the back for thinking about it," said Betty Konc, who owns the downtown business JB Fashions.

STORY BEHIND THE STORY: This week, the Leader wanted to look at what impact climate change is having on local businesses.