No flood money this go-around
Medicine Hat left off list of provincial grant winners for flood protection projects, though Alberta’s environment minister says more money could be sent this way at future funding dispersals
No money specifically for the City of Medicine Hat was announced in this year’s outlay of provincial flood protection grants announced on Tuesday.
Each year since the 2013 floods in Medicine Hat and southern Alberta, city officials have applied to the Alberta Community Resiliency Program as the major funding source to recover money spent on a seven-kilometre local berm system.
That work is rapidly coming to a conclusion with a last leg to Industrial Avenue under construction this year.
“The city is obviously disappointed that we did not receive any ACRP Grant Funding in 2018 for our overland flood mitigation efforts,” wrote municipal works general manager Dwight Brown in an email to the News. “But we will continue to pursue all future grant funding opportunities, including ACRP monies.”
The ACRP is now in year five of a 12-year-program to address flood concerns raised after major flooding in southern Alberta.
At a press conference in Calgary with Environment Minister Shannon Phillips and Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi, Phillips said 2018 projects will make communities better prepared for flooding and help prevent flooding by improving watershed health.
The province will also “move forcefully” over this year to study and do initial engineering on potential reservoir sites upstream from Calgary as a way to hold back water either during floods or to conserve water during drought years.
Medicine Hat could be part of announcement of a second round of funding later this year, said Phillips.
“The (projects) are ranked by staff on a technical level,” she said. “I’ve toured the projects myself and I’m well aware of the needs in Medicine Hat, both speaker (Medicine Hat MLA Bob) Wanner and the city council have been strong advocates, and we’ll make sure they have those details.”
In spring 2016, local officials stated that the total cost of the city’s flood mitigation infrastructure program since the 2013 flood has been about $33 million.
That has been paid for with about $9 million in city reserve money, $22.5 million in provincial grants and another $1.5 million from Ottawa.
In Tuesday’s $23.3-million announcement, the City of Calgary received $13.5 million to help build a portion of a downtown berm, raise a bridge and rework a storm sewer system in a low-laying community.
In the Oldman River basin, the Town of Taber will receive $3.23 million to help develop water holding wetlands near the town’s industrial area that has flooded several times over the past five years.
Among other grant winners announced on Tuesday, a separate watershed grant will see Duck’s Unlimited restore 165 hectares of previous wetlands on the Bow, Oldman, South Saskatchewan and Milk River Basins with $3.3 million in provincial funding.
A separate $10 million will be spent to replace flood supplies, like sand bags, in the provincial stockpile.
Last year Medicine Hat received about $775,000 to improve the intake system at the Medicine Hat water treatment plant as part of the annual program, while Cypress County received $923,000 to upgrade the Veinerville potable water system.
Berm work moving ahead
Last fall the city awarded a $1.23-million contract to local firm MJB Enterprises to construct Phase I of the Industrial Avenue berm project.
That portion runs from the end of the Lions Park berm near the Heritage Pavilion to an abandoned spur rail lane about 500 metres to the south. That point is east of the Medalta national historic site.
Phase II of the project is out to tender and will close on May 8, but is much more complex.
The private contractor will be required to have an archeologist on site to determine value of anything found near the Medalta site, or possibly from earlier Indigenous or Métis settlements.
They will also have to work within the Canadian Pacific Rail right of way, for which the city needed to secure an agreement. And the project was further delayed when the city needed to purchase private land and complete environmental testing of the former industrial sites.