WILDROSE SAYS TORIES FAILED TO PLAN AHEAD
Says province not prepared for disaster
The Wildrose Party took the political gloves off Thursday over southern Alberta’s recent massive flooding, heaping blame on the government for the extent of the damage and attacking much of the Tory plan for reconstruction as wrong-headed.
In an outdoor news conference overlooking the hard-hit Sunnyside neighbourhood, Wildrose Leader Danielle Smith released the Opposition’s own report containing 22 recommendations for dealing with the aftermath of the flood.
The document calls for major provincial investment in flood mitigation infrastructure, a cap on how much individuals can receive to repair or rebuild their homes and restrictions on rebuilding in areas that remain at risk of flooding.
But the report also slams the government for failing to fully implement the recommendations of the 2006 report by then-MLA George Groeneveld, which was done in response to serious flooding a year earlier.
“The failure of the provincial government to heed repeated warnings and properly prepare for severe flooding has resulted in far more damage and hardship than necessary,” said Smith, who represents the flood-ravaged town of High River as Highwood MLA.
No final tally has been made for the damage to public infrastructure, businesses and homes caused by this year’s flooding, though it is estimated to be in the billions of dollars. Premier Alison Redford has pledged an initial $1 billion for relief and rebuilding, with more funding to follow.
On Sunday, the Progressive Conservative government announced its recovery plan for homeowners, including a ban on new development in floodways, the areas in flood hazard zones that are hardest hit.
The province will also pay to repair or rebuild damaged homes in floodways, but won’t provide disaster assistance to those homeowners in cases of future flooding.
In flood fringe areas, the province will pay for the reconstruction of homes, but won’t provide assistance in future flooding unless the homes have been flood proofed, either by the homeowner or through municipal mitigation efforts.
The designations are to be based on existing flood zone mapping by the province, with some tweaking.
But Smith said the government needs to completely redraw the flood zone maps and then go all-out on mitigation efforts.
Once that is complete, the province should not provide financial assistance to rebuild homes that are in “dangerous” areas that can’t be protected from flooding, said Wildrose MLA Rob Anderson. The government should only pay to help those individuals— whom it believes would number only in the dozens — to relocate.
The Opposition would also put a cap on how much the province will pay for the reconstruction of homes, though it won’t put a dollar figure on the amount.
“The goal being to provide enough funding to replace the typical family home or business rather than pay the full cost of multi-million-dollar homes or businesses,” said Smith.
The government’s plan calls for all homeowners to receive assistance to rebuild or repair their homes to a safe level of construction, with Redford recently telling the Herald that “we’re not paying to rebuild granite bathrooms in the basement.”
Rick Fraser, the PC’s associate minister responsible for High River’s reconstruction, said the government’s policy not to have a cap is aimed at ensuring fairness “regardless of class or where they built” this time around.
He said the government is making flood mitigation a priority, but Wildrose’s focus on revamped maps and large-scale infrastructure would mean major delays and long-term uncertainty for homeowners at a potentially much higher cost to provincial coffers.
“We need to be accountable for taxpayer dollars, but I don’t think it’s a political football we should be bouncing back and forth when there are people right now in High River still under a local state of emergency and other places are trying to rebuild and answer for it,” said Fraser.
The province also announced Thursday it had awarded a sixmonth, $45-million contract to environmental firm Tervita to assist with High River’s recovery.
The government says it has made progress on 13 of Groeneveld’s 18 recommendations, but maintains that even if it had fully implemented, the report it would have had little impact given the magnitude of current flooding.
Mount Royal University political analyst David Taras said Wildrose will have to gauge whether the public is ready for a return to a more bare-knuckles style of politics in the immediate aftermath of the flood.
“The question is, are we in the political season? Because such criticism is absolutely legitimate when we’re in the political season but ... the government is still sorting things out,” he said.