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Disaster recovery funding denied

Westlock County will appeal a decision by the provincial government to deny the municipality disaster recovery funding related to last spring’s overland flooding and resulting State of Local Emergency.
flooded road
Westlock County will appeal a decision from the provincial government to deny the municipality of disaster assistance funding related to the overland flooding and subsequent State of Local Emergency declared in the spring.

Westlock County will appeal a decision by the provincial government to deny the municipality disaster recovery funding related to last spring’s overland flooding and resulting State of Local Emergency.

“Subsequent to the flooding event, staff did submit an application to the Alberta Emergency Management Agency (AEMA) requesting consideration for Disaster Recovery Program (DRP) funding for the significant flooding events this spring from the rapid snow melt. Last week we received a letter from the program office denying our application regarding funding,” CAO Leo Ludwig told council at its Oct. 9 meeting.

“I personally have an issue with that. I don’t agree with that assessment. Council has the option to appeal this decision directly to the minister, so administration is providing advice to council to consider filing an appeal to (municipal affairs) minister (Shaye) Anderson.”

The municipality declared a week-long State of Local Emergency April 23 following reports of spring flooding causing roads and bridges to be washed out. Council voted 7-0 at its April 24 meeting to authorize administration to be able to access the municipality’s $381,759 disaster reserve to deal with problems that may arise and authorized repairs and evacuations.

That has allowed the county to repair some of the damage from the flooding, but there is still much remaining. The Shoal Creek bridge on Range Road 21, for instance, is permanently closed and will remain so due to safety issues.

Ludwig estimated it would probably cost $1.5 million to make the bridge usable again.

“For a county with our fiscal realities, we don’t have that kind of money. It’s out of the question,” said Ludwig.

As part of its application for $2.5 million in DRP funding from the province, the county included a list of 54 locations throughout the county, including three bridges, that were seriously damaged by the flooding and need immediate repair.

“After careful review we have determined that this event was not extraordinary or widespread in nature,” stated the letter from AEMA.

The letter went on to say the snowpack and was only of the one-in-12-year-event variety and did not meet the one-in-50-year-event threshold so is not considered an extraordinary event.

“We had over 40 road closures and a number of bridge closures and some bridges that didn’t survive and a lot of culverts that did not survive. Not just a few, but quite a few. So it was widespread, it was extraordinary in our view, so we will definitely be having that discussion with the minister,” said Ludwig after the meeting.

“I think it’s well worth our while to appeal this,” said Coun. Jared Stitsen.

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