Ottawa apartment residents still recovering three months after Canada Day flood

Diane Welshman watched rain go sideways across her balcony at 30 McEwen Ave. on July 1, then looked down to see the lobby flooded above kneecaps. The water receded by the next day, but three months later—well into October—the aftereffects persist.

The concrete tower at the end of a dead-end street near Britannia Bay took the brunt of the historic storm. Lobby sections remain hidden behind plastic sheeting, ground-floor windows show bare metal studs where drywall was stripped away, and yellow wires hang from plywood outside the front doors. Residents were allowed to return July 20 after water drainage and damage remediation. But the building's outdoor pool, gym, sauna, and locker room are still out of commission. Hot water on floors 2 through 8 didn't come back until early September, and the laundry room remains off-limits.

For Welshman, a resident on disability who pays rent with a city housing benefit, the consequences were immediate and costly. Her freezer died when power cut during the storm aftermath. She threw out five bags of food—hamburger, chicken, fish—and dealt with food odour for about four days. "It was a terrible mess. I lost sleep over this situation," she said.

Residents received a 20-day pause on rent for the evacuation period. But that covered only the time they were actually away. David Kenny, a fifth-floor resident, stayed away until September when hot water was restored. He said early communication from Saickley Properties was "bad" and the landlord "seemed to be holding their cards very close to their chest" at first.

Saickley's approach shifted after the tenant advocacy group ACORN released a statement at the end of September calling for rent abatements, repairs, and "urgent resolution" to loss of services. The landlord now sends routine updates to tenants. On October 8, Saickley sent a letter with a legal counsel opinion stating the landlord cannot be held legally or financially responsible for loss of amenities because the discontinuance was through no fault of the landlord.

Kenny's frustration is plain: "Certainly July 1 sucked for everybody involved. I understand it was a lot of expenses for Saickley, but what about the tenants? I mean, it sucked for us, too."