Ottawa is freeing up $15.3 million, through the Disaster Mitigation and Adaptation Fund, for a project to mitigate the effects of natural disasters in Victoria.
The project involves renewing the city's aging underground infrastructure to make it more resilient to floods from coastal storms, spring thaws and rising sea levels, which are all intensifying as a result of climate change.
With our location -- along an active seismic zone -- the infrastructure will also be reinforced to withstand earthquakes.
This project builds on work previously done by the City to identify vulnerabilities in existing infrastructure, and put measures in place to address those risks.
Once complete, it's expected to better protect more than 86,000 residents from the effects of coastal natural hazards and reduce the number of families and businesses who go without essential services at these times by 95%.