The mayor of Calgary says more than one flood mitigation project is needed to protect the downtown area from flooding.

The province is going ahead with plans for an off-stream storage site, or dry reservoir, in Springbank — where excess water from the Elbow River can be diverted.

The reservoir would be located about 15 kilometres west of Calgary, south of Highway 1, east of Highway 22 and north of Highway 8.

A canal would carry water from the Elbow River to the reservoir during flood conditions and release it back to the river in a controlled manner when the flood subsides.

But Naheed Nenshi is also concerned about flooding from the Bow River and he wants more work done to ensure downtown Calgary is never shut down by floodwater again.

The city's flood panel concluded that any two of the three proposed upstream mitigation projects would do the job.

Nenshi says it is not clear what the province is planning beyond the Springbank project.

"Now that we have more data from the province's work, our experts and their experts are working together to see if we still believe two out of three are required," he said. "It's pretty clear that we believe that one is not enough."

Nenshi used a lunch hour speech at the Rotary Club in Calgary today to encourage people to ask candidates about flood mitigation during the upcoming federal and provincial election campaigns.