East Morrison Creek erosion study recommends $3.8 million of bank repairs and monitoring south of Upper Middle Road
Oakville finished its environmental assessment of the creek in March 2026. The study report picks three repair projects where erosion threatens backyards, a parking lot and a sanitary sewer, and five years of monitoring at six other sites.
- For who represents the area on Council: Ward 6.
In this story
The details
What was decided
On March 31, 2026, the Town of Oakville issued a notice that it had completed the East Morrison Creek Erosion Mitigation Study, a Schedule B Municipal Class Environmental Assessment, and opened its project file for a 30-day public review that ran to April 30. Council had endorsed the study's recommendations on January 26, 2026, as a consent item moved by Councillor Adams and seconded by Councillor Longo, and directed that the notice be issued.
The study covers the creek from Postridge Drive south to the Morrison-Wedgewood Diversion Channel, crossing Glenashton Drive and Upper Middle Road East on the way. The Environmental Study Report, prepared for the Town by Montrose Environmental, says this stretch was ranked the first-priority long reach of concern in the Town's 2021 creek inventory. It describes a creek cutting down and widening in soft shale under the extra stormwater an urbanized watershed sends it, with older protection such as gabion baskets now degraded.
Where the problems are
The report assessed 24 erosion sites and scored each for risk. Twelve scored 50 out of 100 or higher and were carried into the assessment, and it says all of those are south of Upper Middle Road. The streets it names beside the worst of them, Lambeth Road and White Oaks Boulevard, are in Ward 6. Most are places where the creek runs against the valley wall below private property.
- Below Lambeth Road: a large valley-wall contact with private properties at the top of the slope, in a zone the geotechnical consultant rated high risk for slope instability, where fence posts appeared to be moving downslope.
- Near White Oaks Boulevard: a perched stormwater outfall beside erosion at the toe of the slope, where the report notes potential impacts at one property: fence posts moving downslope and part of a parking lot separating.
- On a tributary: a corroded steel culvert under a trail crossing, with a sanitary sewer built in 1977 crossing above it. The surveyed top of bank at the culvert outlet was 1.88 metres from the sewer, and this was the highest-scoring site.
What the study recommends
- Realign the channel away from the toe of the slope and replace gabion baskets with an armourstone wall: $1,800,000
- Remove gabion baskets, realign the channel, protect the outfall and build a vegetated flagstone buttress at the toe of the slope: $1,300,000
- Line and reinforce the culvert with headwalls and stabilize the channel upstream and downstream: $400,000
- Five years of monitoring, with annual topographic surveys and repeat photographs: $300,000
- $3,800,000
The Town's notice describes the approach as continuous monitoring plus localized works using vegetated rock revetments, bioengineering and armourstone. The report chose targeted repairs over rebuilding the whole reach, and recommends doing the three projects together under one construction contract because their risk and urgency are similar.
At the six monitored sites, the report proposes a trigger: if measured erosion suggests the creek would reach property or infrastructure in less than 25 years, the Town can file an addendum and design further works. The 12 lower-scoring sites stay in the Town's regular creek monitoring, reviewed on a five-year cycle.
How it was studied
The Town began the study on December 18, 2023, and held public information centres on September 17, 2024 and June 11, 2025. The report records consultation with Conservation Halton and says Six Nations of the Grand River reviewed and commented on the draft.
Where it stands now
As of November 9, 2026, the Town's project page says all four phases of the study are complete and posts the report and its appendices. The review period closed on April 30. The Town's pages do not say whether any request was made to the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks for a higher level of study.
Nothing has been built. The report says the recommended projects would typically be completed within five years of the assessment, or within ten if the Town files an addendum updating site conditions, starting with detailed design and permits. The Town's project page gives no construction year, and the dollar figures are estimates made at preliminary design, before any tender.
