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NEWS RELEASE |
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| April 30, 2007 | For
Immediate Release |
BREITKREUZ TOURS FLOOD RAVAGED RURAL MUNICIPALITIES
YORKTON — Heavy rains last fall, followed by a heavy snow pack over the winter have devastated a number of areas and rural municipalities throughout the Parkland. On Friday afternoon, April 27th, Garry Breitkreuz, federal Member of Parliament for Yorkton-Melville, toured the flood-stricken area in the Rural Municipality of Foam Lake, which includes portions of Fishing Lake, and also met with councillors from the Rural Municipality of Invermay.
“Although these rural municipalities must apply to the Province of Saskatchewan for disaster assistance funding from the federal government,” said Breitkreuz, “I really wanted to see firsthand the challenges being faced by residents in the area this spring.”
In 1970, a program called Disaster Financial Assistance Arrangements (DFAA) was established to assist provincial and territorial governments in the event of a large scale disaster. In the case of the Saskatchewan rural municipalities facing the flood disasters this year, the R.M.s must first declare themselves a disaster area and apply to the province for disaster assistance. The province then applies to the federal government in Ottawa for DFAA money. Through the DFAA, assistance is paid directly to the province or territory - not directly to the individuals or communities.
The R.M. of Foam Lake is facing disaster on a number of levels. Throughout the R.M., at least 39 roadways have been washed out, two of those are of a major nature involving more than one culvert. The Administrator of the R.M. of Foam Lake, Ron Kostiuk, estimates the two major washouts will cost $70,000 each. Repairs to these roads must be expedited with the imminent start to spring seeding just days away.
On the other side is the situation at Fishing Lake. While resort village councils have been established at Leslie Beach and Chorney Beach, those beach communities and the Knights of Columbus Beach, function within the R.M. of Foam Lake. Lost to rising water and ice is everything from $300,000 permanent homes, to summer cottages, vehicles, boats, businesses and infrastructure. Sewage disposal, water mains and roadways have been destroyed.
“R.M. councillors told me that I was looking at a minimum of $60 million worth of damage,” said Breitkreuz. “Home and cottage owners built three and four-foot walls of sandbags surrounding their structures, but now water is on both sides of the sandbag walls, and waves and ice are destroying their dwellings.”
“It is heartbreaking to see how hard these people fought for their homes,” said Breitkreuz. “You can see how much effort went into saving them. How horrible it must have been for the homeowners to decide they just couldn’t do any more.”
In anticipation of what was to come, the R.M. of Foam Lake declared itself a disaster situation in early spring. However, council believes much more could have been done to avert the entire situation at Fishing Lake.
“This area was flooded in 1997, and those cottage and homeowners who rebuilt did so after being told they were above the flood level,” said Breitkreuz after surveying the north portion of Leslie Beach which is completely under water for the second time in 10 years. “We need to be able to reassure these residents that they can rebuild without being threatened by yet another flood. From a financial standpoint, it is imperative that these cottage and homeowners return to the Rural Municipality of Foam Lake. These residents are very important R.M. taxpayers, and they support countless businesses in the area.”
Following the 1997 flood, an idea was put forward to build a controlled channel leading east out of Fishing Lake. A controlled channel would allow for water to be let out during the drier months starting in July, and would ensure a safe lake level in the fall so that a heavy rain or snow-pack would be a non-issue in the spring. Plans for the channel would see water flowing out of Fishing Lake and through neighbouring rural municipalities, including the R.M. of Invermay, which has also filed for disaster assistance after suffering its share of flood-damaged roads this year. To date there have been 80 road washouts in the R.M. of Invermay, and there is potential for more.
“Despite a second year of flood damage, council in the R.M. of Invermay believe if the proposed channel coming out of Fishing Lake is controlled, and controlled properly, they could handle water coming through in the late summer and fall months,” said Breitkreuz. The water channeled out of Fishing Lake would eventually lead to the White Sand River.
“I understand that not much has been done with the controlled channel idea due to a number of obstacles, including requirements placed on the project by the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO),” said Breitkreuz. “I was told that the cost of the controlled channel, including an environmental impact study, would be in the $1.5 million range. Today I am looking at $60 million in damages because that channel was not constructed. This is unacceptable. I will certainly bring this to the attention of Loyola Hearn, Minister of Fisheries and Oceans.
“I am also calling on the provincial government to act quickly to alleviate the burden this flooding has caused. Having had an opportunity to see and understand this devastation first hand, no individual at any level of government – federal or provincial – will want to make a solution to the problem unattainable. We all need to work together to ensure there is a future for this area,” concluded Breitkreuz.
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