On April 18, 2026, the Municipality of West Nipissing declared a state of emergency in response to widespread flooding in the Sturgeon River catchment along with rising waters in Lake Nipissing. However, to qualify, expenses need to exceed three per cent of the municipality’s taxation, which puts West Nipissing’s threshold at $718,340 — considerably higher than the actual expenses. “We were well under the threshold for provincial funding,” noted Frank Loeffen, Chief of the West Nipissing Fire and Emergency Service. Highway 64 in Field was closed during the state of emergency due to multiple washouts as were many other roads throughout West Nipissing. Given the rising waters and forecasted rain this past April, the municipality anticipated the damage was going to be much worse.