City did great job on flood response now it is up to the province to respond quickly, fairly, and adequately
Congratulations to the workers and administration in the City of North Battleford for the effort they put in to deal with the incredible storm that brought massive amounts of water and hail on July 22nd.
It was hard to believe that that much water could fall on us in such a short period of time or that so much could accumulate and do the damage that it did. This happened earlier in the year in Maple Creek, in Yorkton, and in Saskatoon. So, it is certainly the year of the flood.
During the downpour and the hailstorm it was obvious that city workers knew they had trouble on their hands. In a very short period of time they had barricades up and were helping to get the water moving through the city’s storm sewers.
Shortly after the storm ended, the city administration knew they needed to put their emergency measures team in place and within hours they had workers from social services, the Red Cross, Victims Services, Prairie North Regional Health Authority, and others lined up to talk to people who were either displaced by the flooding of homes, or who found their homes seriously damaged by flood waters, sewer backup, or hail.
Mayor Ian Hamilton was actively involved in analyzing information and co-ordinating information. The media were briefed regularly. The application for emergency relief was quickly requested, approved, and application forms became available. From my vantage point, the public were very well served by those who were on hand to help.
Now, a week later, there are still matters that need attention to ensure the public continues to be well served. Obviously, an urgent and early financial response is needed from the insurance companies and from the provincial disaster relief program. Even though there are houses in Maple Creek, Yorkton, and Saskatoon that need to be assessed, these homes in North Battleford need to have that assessment work completed early too so that residents will know what funding they are entitled to. The provincial government needs to increase its financial resources if necessary to get this done.
There is another matter that appears not to have been contemplated when the original provincial program was designed and it needs to be looked at now. A number of the damaged homes in North Battleford were older homes, some with rented basement suites. The renters in these suites were paying low (but appropriate) rents because of the age of the homes. In many cases it was all the tenant could afford. North Battleford has a shortage of rental units to begin with, and rents have recently been increasing. Displaced renters are finding that they can’t go back to their damaged suites, and if they can find a new place to live it is going to be at substantially higher rents. Many of these people are older people, young people just starting new jobs, or immigrants recently arrived in our city. It has been suggested that the province develop a rent subsidy to help these people get resettled. The subsidy would take into account the emergency nature of the move and the fact that in most cases all the personal belongings to those affected were also damaged or destroyed.
There will also be the issue of value placed on damaged property. It would appear that values assessed will not be what the insurance companies call replacement costs, but rather will be actual costs. So, if a severely damaged home is assessed as being worth $30,000, the provincial relief will be 80% of that, and not the $100,000 or $150,000 that would be required to replace that home.
If the province is reviewing its ability to respond to emergencies such as those we have just faced, then it is important that they look beyond the usual things and take into account some of the special circumstances in which some of our residents might find themselves. We need to ensure that homeowners, and renters are properly and fairly treated as they struggle to get their lives back together. This storm had a major affect on the quality of life of our friends and neighbours. The City has been doing its part, the next steps are the responsibility of the province.
