Kyle Fawcett…
Associate Minister for
Recovery and Reconstruction
While Drumheller is waiting for specific details into flood mitigation, Associate Minister for Recovery and Reconstruction of Southwest Alberta Kyle Fawcett says the 2014 budget has a great commitment to recovering from last June’s flood.
Minister Fawcett told The Mail there is $1.1 billion in operational and capital spending over the next three years to address flood recovery and mitigation initiatives.
“Almost half of that is in this year’s budget alone,” said Fawcett.
He explains this includes items like local flood mitigation, local tax relief, the floodway relocation program, the erosion control program and grants to municipalities. There is additional money for flood hazard studies to protect public infrastructure such as schools, roads and bridges.
“It is pretty comprehensive. We have been working hard to identify what the needs are and we want to make sure communities know we are committed to the rebuilding process over the long run,” said Fawcett. “We are still dealing with a lot of short term projects, but as the Premier said, this is a five year rebuilding effort, and I think the money in the budget shows we are committed to that.”
He said there is one mitigation project already underway in the valley and that is at the Drumheller Health Centre.
He said there should be an announcement over the next couple months in regards to Drumheller’s mitigation document it submitted to the province last fall.
"We are going through everything that has been submitted and working with a number of consulting engineers and all the different watersheds and evaluating the proposals,” said Fawcett. "We are hoping we will have those plans out there some time in the next two months.”
Beyond the brick and mortar he says they have all invested in more safeguards.
“We have put money into doing more monitoring and more education, and we are very aware we need to communicate with people around the risks,” sad Fawcett. “I know people are worried about the snowpack, but generally across the province it’s pretty average… we are monitoring it, but at the end of the day most of our flooding in this province has been the result of intense concentrated rain.”
“Mother Nature always has the last say and we want to make sure communities are prepared, if that is the case.”
