Toronto council voted Tuesday night to cancel a program in which the city paid to disconnect the downspouts of homes from the sewer system.

But because of the publicity over the ending of the program, about 50,000 people joined the waiting list before it was cancelled.
  
It costs about $1,300 to disconnect a home's downspouts — and with the massive waiting list it could cost the city $65 million to cover everyone who signed up.

The city's budget for downspout disconnections next year is just $3.5 million.

The city's water manager Lou Di Gironimo says water rates would have to jump another 10 per cent a year to pay the entire cost of the disconnection program.
 
The city is trying to eliminate downspouts that send rainwater into the sewers and overwhelm water treatment plants, causing untreated sewage to spill into Lake Ontario.