Homeowners deserve more support

Tom McNeil’s letter (‘Homeowner not happy taking one for ‘Liberal team’, Cape Breton Post, Feb. 10) brings up some very relevant points as well as some confusion.

Firstly, in my opinion there is no doubt that these homeowners have been shafted by every level of government – the municipal, provincial and federal. All the promises made by them were just for the cameras it seems. These people are being nickeled and dimed and the onus should be on the municipal government to be standing up to the provincial and federal authorities to get these people back on their feet.

As to the confusion I referred to, McNeil’s letter refers to Cape Breton Regional Municipality planning director Malcolm Gillis saying that south end flooding is by design. But regarding Gillis’ statement that the south end park was designed as a retention pond if McNeil is referring to the municipality not being proactive to the problem such as widening the part of the brook through Open Hearth Park when it was being built I don’t see it.

First of all, I lived on Hillview Ave. in Sydney from 1947 until I married and moved out. We still retain the family home. In my 70 years I know we never had flooding like that. The park area referred to was always flat. There were two ball fields there and a third located where Brookland Elementary School now stands. Cabot St. and Royal Ave. ended at Hillview Ave. I’ve seen the water flood the fields but there were lots of trees to help absorb water back then. A few years ago work was done to Wash Brook which was to alleviate flooding which it did the first big rain after.

The bottom line is the people affected by the Thanksgiving Day flood deserve the very best efforts of this municipal government.