‘I’m not on a witch hunt:’ Ottawa city councillor just wants flood answers

By Jenn Pritchard

West Carleton councillor Eli El-Chantiry wants people to know that he's not buying into any flooding conspiracies. 

In a statement, El-Chantiry wrote that he wanted to clarify his intentions for requesting an investigation into the floods of 2017 and 2019 by the provincial and federal governments. 

“I'm not on a witch hunt to point fingers against anybody, I'm just trying to get my residents an answer,” he explained to 1310 NEWS. “What should they do next? If you tell me, 'Well, you can go ahead and build again,' does that mean in two years we're going to go through this again?” 

El-Chantiry recognized that there have been theories popping up online that human error at dams along the Ottawa River could be to blame for the floods, and he wants these investigations to help either confirm or rule this out. 

“If there's no human error and this is really climate change we are seeing and we need to deal with from here on, well that's something we have to then start preparing for,” said the councillor. 

He explained that once the answers come in, he'll be able to focus on what could be the 'new normal' for his residents. 

Many of the residents in his ward, which includes the hard-hit community of Constance Bay, have been asking the councillor if they should even bother rebuilding their homes. 

Mayor Jim Watson sent letters to both Premier Doug Ford and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Wednesday, requesting a timely investigation. 

 

 

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