MLA for Drumheller-Stettler Rick Strankman was in Drumheller Monday updating Drumheller Town Council on his lobbying efforts for flood mitigation, but he didn’t have many answers.
Last Spring, Strankman accompanied Mayor Terry Yemen and Councillor Jay Garbutt to a town-arranged meeting with Brian Mason, Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure to talk about flood mitigation. His visit on Monday was to tell council about his progress in the interim, and he was short on answers.
Strankman expressed his frustration that answers were not forthcoming from the government. He said there may have been questions in the legislature from other members of his party, however he did not have a record of these exchanges at the meeting. When pressed as to whether he has made any efforts to write letters or arrange meetings or conversations with members of the government or administration he said he had not. He explains his preference is to have the questions asked in the legislature.
For Mayor Yemen, his answers fell short.
“I don’t think the only effective way to do anything is on the floor of the legislature,” said Yemen.
“I was certainly disappointed to say the least in his efforts,” said Yemen. “I think we have a responsibility to hold these people accountable. He (Strankman) is our conduit, our vessel, our voice, and if he is not doing it, citizens and municipal government should hold these people to some level of accountability.”
On the top of the Town of Drumheller’s list of concerns is that there are agreements dating back decades that specify that the province is responsible for flood mitigation, covering 100 per cent of the costs. Drumheller is also eagerly awaiting from the province a new flood hazard map that needs tobe integrated into its land use bylaw and Municipal Development Plan.
Strankman indicated that he would like to see what sort of disaster programs will be in place following the Fort McMurray fire to see how they would apply. Yemen replied the issue is not new.
“This something that has been going on since the 1980’s, it flared up in 2005 and then flared up again in 2013 and has yet to be resolved, and I think it is fully the province’s responsibility,” said Yemen. “We are not asking for more, we are asking for what was promised in the 1980’s.”
