B.C. communities were among the hardest hit during deadly floods in November 2021, but Ottawa rejected their request for major flood protection funding last summer.
More than three years after deadly flooding devastated parts of B.C., the three most hard-hit communities still don’t have the funding needed to properly upgrade their flood protections.
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There has been no movement since then from the federal government or an announcement of new funding.
And while the province has put up some money for aspects of the three communities’ proposed projects, it’s a fraction of what is needed.
B.C. municipalities have consistently told the provincial and federal governments they don’t have the financial resources for the needed upgrades.
“This type of infrastructure is way beyond what a municipality can afford,” says Abbotsford Mayor Ross Siemens.
That’s particularly so for Abbotsford, which has the largest municipal land base in B.C., and where 75 per cent of its land is in the Agricultural Land Reserve, which is taxed at a much lower rate than other land, Siemens said.
The city has two floodplains and 43 kilometres of dikes, which also protect valued agricultural land, which supplies much of B.C.’s dairy and poultry producers, noted Siemens.
But he said flood protection in the area is also a national issue because, for example, it effects the main transportation arterial for road and rail to Canada’s biggest port, in Metro Vancouver.
Across B.C., billions in dollars of damage saw thousands of people displaced from their homes, and roads and bridges were washed away. Five people died.
Experts have forecast these types of weather-driven events, which also include wildfires and droughts, to become more frequent and intense because of climate change.
In their applications to Ottawa for flood protection funding, Abbotsford had asked for $1.6 billion, with Princeton applying for $55 million and Merritt $48 million.
The timing of an outcome for that initiative isn’t known, and Siemens said it’s too early to say whether it will affect Abbotsford’s flood protection plans.
The 2021 floods also heavily damaged Merritt and Princeton.
Merritt Mayor Mike Goetz says he, along with Princeton Mayor Spencer Coyne, will be making a push next spring in Ottawa for federal funding. Goetz said they expect to have help from Central Okanagan-Similkameen-Nicola Conservative MP Dan Albas, whose riding covers both communities.
In the interim, the B.C. government has stepped up with $39 million in funding to help rebuild and upgrade a bridge and provide some upgraded diking.
Goetz said however that it’s a fraction of what is needed to upgrade 14 kilometres of dikes and the buyout of 21 homes. The buyouts are needed to move back a dike to create a larger floodplain.
“I think it’s unfair to have these people sit in limbo like this while they can’t do anything with their properties. They can’t fix them, they can’t build on them, they can’t do anything. And they need to be taken care of, and they need to be relocated in our community,” said Goetz.