Roughly 200 Drumheller residents packed the banquet hall at the Badlands Community Facility to get answers directly from the Government of Alberta.
During the evening of Wednesday, August 28, a delegation from the Flood Recovery Task Force met with residents and attempted to provide answers. Associate Minister for Recovery and Reconstruction Southwest Alberta Kyle Fawcett headed the delegation.
“I think what we want to do is provide people with information. It’s been nine weeks since the flood happened and, as a government, we’ve tried to move fast, making a lot of decisions that impact people and communities,” said Fawcett. “We want to make sure people, as they are rebuilding, have as much information as we can possibly give them.”
Two hundred residents from Drumheller filled the banquet hall at the Badlands Community Facility Wednesday evening to get answers from the Flood Recovery Task Force. Associate Minister for Recovery and Reconstruction Southwest Alberta Kyle Fawcett confirmed Drumheller was exempt from plans to ban development in floodways.
To open the meeting, Fawcett discussed the current state of the province’s flood policies and confirmed Drumheller and Fort McMurray were exempt from the province-wide development ban in floodways.
In Drumheller, areas previously marked as floodways will be considered as flood fringe in regards to flood mitigation policies. Residents could be eligible for $8,000 to $10,000 to mitigate their homes.
Fawcett also confirmed there would be no caveats placed on land titles, though residents who access disaster recovery funding will receive a caveat until flood mitigation has been completed on their homes.
In regards to the flood hazard maps, Fawcett indicated they are going to be reviewed.
“Moving forward...sometime in the near future, we will be announcing plans to do remapping to take into account some of the changes that have happened,” said Fawcett. “Once those maps are done, they will guide our decisions moving forward.”
However, some residents want to see the current flood hazard map gone sooner, rather than later.
“Why don’t they, when it comes to that (web) page, take it down? It doesn’t make any sense to leave it up,” said Rick Strankman, MLA Drumheller-Stettler.
After Fawcett finished his presentation, residents took the mic with questions.
Several questions were asked regarding the Dickson Dam and improving it to better control water flow during a flood. Fawcett stated a review of the operations of the Dickson Dam was on the province’s agenda.
Drumheller Town Councillor Lisa Hansen-Zacharuk asked if there were any plans to address property values and reports of clauses on mortgages asking if the home is in a floodway.
“I would suspect there should be no impact to property assessment or values,” said Fawcett. “As time moves forward, I think some of that alarmism in mortgage companies will fade.”
Following the question period, residents were able to meet one-on-one with the Task Force and to get further answers.
Mayor Terry Yemen was glad to see the province address residents’ concerns.
“It’s a positive step forward to give us that exemption and making us an approved development zone. We talked about the caveats and they removed them. We talked about mitigation and now they’re recognizing what we’ve done,” said Yemen.
Yemen also confirmed the Town is close to submitting their flood plan to the province. In the plan are requests to build more dykes and berms along the river, including Rosedale and Lehigh.
“It’ll be about three weeks, then it’ll go to the government. We’ll find all the hot spots and the remedial action we want to take. It’ll be presented to Council, so the public can provide their input,” said Yemen.
Lehigh resident Peggy Ginger felt the meeting was needed, but that is did not quite address the concerns expressed by those in attendance.
“It’s been positive. I think they’re trying, but there’s only so much they can answer, because everything is so up in the air,” said Ginger. “I think it’ll just take time.”
