Halton Region will focus its basement flooding outreach on Burlington and Milton homes in 2027, as part of a program that has issued 349 flood-proofing subsidies worth more than $1.1 million across Halton since targeted outreach began in September 2025.
Lee Anne Jones, the Region's commissioner of public works, set out the plan in an interim update to regional council on the Basement Flooding Mitigation Program, which helps homeowners in flood-prone neighbourhoods protect their basements. Region staff will keep investigating and contacting homeowners in the program's priority areas.
So far, staff have checked 106 km of wastewater main and 5,800 properties. They found 824 properties in Burlington, Georgetown and Oakville showing signs of inflow and infiltration, meaning rainwater or groundwater is getting into the sanitary sewers, which can then back up into basements in heavy storms. Those homes are first in line for a visit.
Targeted outreach started in September 2025 and by September 2026 had included 1,531 homes, producing 262 completed Household Drainage Surveys, or 17 per cent. Turnout was far lower at two community information sessions, one of them in Burlington's Priority Area 3: just nine households came, less than one per cent of the homeowners invited.
To learn what is stopping homeowners from using the subsidies, staff are building a homeowner survey to send out in 2027.
