Ontario’s Financial Accountability Office is warning of higher infrastructure costs because of climate change.

It says more extreme rainfall events could add over $6 billion to the cost of replacing sewer and water lines by 2030.

F-A-O Peter Weldman says the failure of governments failing to keep pipes in a good state of repair could be far more expense.

“As extreme rainfall becomes more frequent and intense, unadapt assets will increasingly face capacity constraints and really what that means is it raises the flood risk to surrounding areas.

Weldman says flood damages to homeowners and businesses could be even more substantial as a result.

He estimates that a proactive approach will add between $71 to $127 billion to infrastructure costs.

While the study didn’t examine specific flooding costs, Weldman says it would likely be significant if a do-nothing approach was taken.

(With files from Randy Thoms)