New pumping station will help protect residents from floods in Mississauga 

Residents of a community in northwest Mississauga are several weeks away from being better protected from devastating floods with the opening of a “critical” piece of new infrastructure, the city says.

The third pumping station to be built in the Lisgar area of west Meadowvale is “expected to be fully operational in July,” City of Mississauga Ward 10 Coun. Sue McFadden told residents in an update on Tuesday.

“Testing of the control panel has already taken place and further testing of the rest of the equipment is taking place over the next several weeks,” the councillor said in her latest newsletter to the community. “Following successful testing, the pumping station will remain operational and will join two previously built stations further north along the Sixteen Mile Creek in helping to reduce residential flooding in the area.”

The new station is located along Sixteen Mile Creek, immediately south of Doug Leavens Boulevard.

Fourth pumping station to open in 2027

McFadden added “the detailed design of a fourth station, planned for the east edge of Osprey Marsh just south of Osprey Boulevard, is complete and construction is scheduled to begin later this summer.”

That puts the fourth facility on track to open in 2027, the city said earlier.

In her update to constituents, McFadden said all four pumping stations, when operational, are designed to regulate the amount of stormwater within the Foundation Drain Collector system and automatically pump water out of the FDC sewers when it reaches a pre-determined level.

“This creates space in the system and reduces the chances of a surcharge of water backing up toward basement foundations,” she added. “This mitigation measure is in addition to the High Water Protocol that the city invokes whenever significant rain or thunderstorms are forecast in the area.”

The city’s High Water Protocol involves trucks towing powerful pumps to three locations along the creek to “manually monitor water levels in the sewer and activate pumps whenever too much water enters the system.”

Earlier this year, McFadden said the new pumping station — and the one to be operational in 2027 — “will help with all of the flooding that we’ve been experiencing in the Lisgar community.”

Flooding problems date back two decades

Area residents have dealt with flooding for the better part of two decades. The flooding of homes in their community dates back to 2008 and two pumping stations were built earlier in efforts to address the problem.

Residents pleaded with Mississauga’s mayor last September to use her political clout to fast-track completion of the fourth pumping station being built to help mitigate the flooding problem. That facility, to open next year, will be located “along the tributary at Osprey Boulevard,” McFadden said earlier.

The first and second pumping stations are located north along the creek at Cactus Gate and Smoke Tree and started operating in 2021 and 2025, respectively, she added.

Frustrated residents have pushed the City of Mississauga — in particular, the mayor — to have the fourth pumping station up and running by the end of 2026 instead of next year.

However, that won’t happen, the city said last September.

A letter from the Lisgar Residents’ Association to the mayor, council and senior city staff in September 2025 noted, in part, that “… repeated flooding of Lisgar has caused serious financial hardship and deep anxiety in the community.

“Every year, the floods are becoming increasingly widespread as hundreds of homes are flooded, encompassing Lisgar from east to west, north to south. Lisgar has suffered repeated flooding, some (residents) as much as” five and six flooding events, if not more.

$125 million in losses due to floods since 2008, residents say

The residents said last year they had also contacted, via letter, Canada’s Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne and they had the support of Mississauga umbrella residents’ group MIRANET (Mississauga Residents’ Association Network) in pushing for the fourth station to be built faster.

In their late 2025 letter to the city, Lisgar residents said a timeline extending into 2027 “is not acceptable to our community.”

The letter continued, “We are respectfully requesting Mayor (Carolyn) Parrish to use the strong mayor powers to facilitate the construction of the remaining pumping stations” so all are completed and running no later than the end of 2026.

Residents further noted that new homes being built in Lisgar and additional basement apartments being constructed “will put additional pressure on the stormwater sewer and sanitation sewer capacity that is currently overwhelming” the system.

The residents’ group estimated the total flood-related financial cost to residents, collectively, since 2008 to be around $125 million.

“It is bewildering after all these years to continue to experience flooding,” the residents said in their letter.

Other measures to mitigate flooding

Meanwhile, McFadden noted earlier, the ongoing dredging of Osprey Marsh is also expected to lessen the impact of flooding in the future.

The first phase in that process began late in 2025 and was completed earlier this year. The second phase is slated to begin in July, with scheduled completion by end of the year, McFadden said.

“The dredging will remove sediment from the bottom of the pond and improve the function and operation of this stormwater management facility,” she added.

“Flood prevention remains a key priority for me on behalf of all residents and especially those properties that are in a flood-prone area.”