Is urban flooding becoming a more pressing threat as Canada's infrastructure ages?

After multiple water main breaks and floods across the country this summer, municipalities and experts are warning that urban flooding could become more common as Canada's infrastructure ages.

«We have good infrastructure in Canada. The challenge is it's aging and we're not keeping up,» John Gamble, president of the Association of Consulting Engineering Companies of Canada, told CBC News.

A major water main break in Montreal on Friday triggered flooding and a boil water advisory — just the latest in a string of infrastructure failures that have happened in recent months.

In June, Calgary declared a state of local emergency and called on residents to cut their water consumption after the city's main water feeder pipe failed.

A major storm that caused massive floods in the streets of Toronto last month raised questions about whether city infrastructure is built to withstand heavy rainfall. Vancouver experienced its own, less severe flooding in June, after a sewer main broke in the Olympic Village.

«Sadly, we're going to see more of this instead of less… unless there's a real full-press effort to proactively address some of the infrastructure challenges in this country,» Gamble said.

In June, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) called on all three levels of government to convene a meeting to discuss threats facing municipalities, including crumbling infrastructure.

«Municipalities own approximately 60 per cent of the infrastructure in this country and yet when it comes to taxes, we get less. Eight to 10 cents of every dollar tax dollar that's collected goes to municipalities,» Geoff Stewart, president of the FCM, told CBC News.

Stewart said the funding model for municipal infrastructure maintenance is badly outdated and