Mayor Yemen is confident that Drumheller residents will be treated fairly by the Alberta Government in recovering from the floods. 
This comes after a positive letter from The Minister of Municipal Affairs Doug Griffiths.
“I am writing you to inform you that the Ministerial Task Force Responsible for Flood Recovery has agreed that the Government of Alberta should work with the Town of Drumheller to finalize an “approved Development zone” that would allow development in certain areas currently defined by the province as floodway, providing there are adequate measures in place to protect against a 1:100 flooding event,” states a letter from Minister Griffiths.
“I am still hearing the sky is falling,” said Yemen, indicating that is not his understanding. He expressed his concern to the administrator for the Flood Recovery Task Force Andre Corbould and received assurances.
“He said “bottom line, it is status quo, Drumheller - move forward with what you are doing, your actions have been evaluated and we are in agreement, move forward.’”
He has heard concerns from people involved in real estate and mortgages, and has taken his letter from Griffiths directly to them to help allay fears.
“Even though we are identified as floodway in the map, we are being treated as a flood fringe, so with the mitigation as we have always done, we can continue developing, that is how it was explained to me,” said Yemen.
He said the town has begun to give out development permits, as it always has with the stipulations.
“It has to comply with our land use bylaw which states you have to mitigate,” said Yemen.
Minister Griffiths also indicated in his letter that more dyking could add to the approved development zone.
“Existing developed areas, not currently protected by dyking, could be added to the approved development zone as mitigation is implemented and approved. For future developed areas in the floodway, the town would have to propose appropriate mitigation strategies and provide justification for how such development would still be in the context of the broader provincial policy intent,” states the letter.
Yemen says right now the town is working on a report to look at how the valley could be more protected.
“Now it is all process. We are going to give the report to the government, they are going to analyze it, reevaluate what we are saying and evaluate the costs,” said Yemen. “We may not see everything we are asking for but we won’t know that until we finish this process.”
