The Town of LaSalle is blaming Herb Gray Parkway construction, at least in part, after a wave of residents report basement flooding.
"We're of the opinion that although there are a number of factors that probably contributed to some of these basements being flooded, one of them certainly could be and likely is the Herb Gray Parkway," says Mayor Ken Antaya.
At the end of July, a large rainstorm caused the most recent problems for taxpayers in the Oliver Estates area. The town has been investigating for the past month.
"What we have to do is we have to get the Ministry of Transportation to admit that there's an issue, first of all," says Antaya. "The municipality is not going to go in there and start correcting things if it's a parkway issue."
The town plans to sit down with ministry officials again, but Antaya isn't very hopeful.
"In the true spirit of bureaucracy I'm thinking they're sort of saying 'well, if we keep on delaying, the municipality will just deal with it,'" he says, adding LaSalle doesn't have the resources to solve the problem on its own.
It's pretty easy to point fingers, Antaya says, because these flooding issues weren't happening prior to the parkway construction.
In an email to BlackburnNews.com, Ministry of Transportation Director Garfield Dales says they're aware of resident concerns.
"We are also aware of the long-term issues with draining in the Town of LaSalle outside of the Parkway corridor," he says. "We continue to work with our private sector partners and the Town of LaSalle to review the design and construction in this area to determine if any further work is required."