Ottawa rebuffed Alberta after ’05 floods, Stelmach team says
Redford seeking national disaster relief program
EDMONTON — Members of former premier Ed Stelmach’s cabinet say they wish they had done more to prevent the damage inflicted by flooding in southern Alberta last June, but some say the federal government was not willing to help pay for a $300-million plan drawn up after floods in 2005.
Former municipal affairs minister Ray Danyluk said he travelled to Ottawa to pitch for funding to implement the strategy drafted by a committee under former High River MLA George Groeneveld, but claims the federal government declined to participate.
“The feds were more what I consider in the reactive mode instead of being proactive and looking at the mitigation,” said Danyluk, who was defeated by Wildrose MLA Shayne Saskiw in the last provincial election. “We tried very hard to get their support because we needed their support to make this happen, and it didn’t come forward.”
He couldn’t recall the names of the three ministers with whom he met in the Stephen Harper Conservative government that was elected early in 2006.
Danyluk said he took a discussion paper to cabinet during his years as municipal affairs minister, but without federal assistance the governing Tories couldn’t build the infrastructure called for in the November 2006 Groeneveld report.
“I do remember going to Ottawa,” Danyluk said.
“They were not supportive of what we were trying to do or did not have the funding at that time to make it happen.”
Herald requests for comment from several Alberta MPs were not returned, but a spokesman for Public Safety Canada said Ottawa contributed nearly $130 million in disaster assistance to Alberta following the 2005 flood under a separate Disaster Financial Assistance program that mainly covers flood damages.
Premier Alison Redford is seeking support this week for a Canada-wide disaster-mitigation program at the annual Council of the Federation meeting in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont., saying that in light of the widespread flooding in southern Alberta and other natural disasters elsewhere in the country in recent years, it’s critical provinces work together to better protect Canadians.
“We need to ensure the federal government is involved in the conversation and explore the idea of dedicated federal funding for di- saster mitigation,” she said in a statement.
Danyluk recalled this week that some flood mitigation work proceeded in Calgary and Canmore while he was minister, but he doubted the infrastructure projects proposed in the Groeneveld plan would have prevented the massive flooding that occurred this summer.
“When you see the devastation that happened one can look at it and say it would have been nice if we could have done something to prevent some of that, but I can’t even tell you that we could have done something to prevent the floods that happened,” he said.
Former environment minister Rob Renner said his department did begin the flood zone mapping that was recommended in the report, but it was difficult politically to follow through on recommendations to pass legislation to prohibit people from building homes in flood-prone areas.
“When you tell somebody that you are not going to allow any development on their land you better be prepared to deal with the ramifications of that,” he said.
We’re going to have more floods. That’s a given. TY LUND EX- MINISTER
It was difficult for the Stelmach government because property rights were a hot-button issue, he said. “I think that was one of the biggest stumbling blocks.”
Former infrastructure minister Ty Lund said no one deliberately buried the Groeneveld report, but a major reason for the lack of action on it was the retirement of then-Tory premier Ralph Klein and the defeat of Paul Martin’s federal Liberals by Stephen Harper’s Conservatives.
Both Klein and Martin visited High River in 2005 to view the flooding and were committed to working together to try to prevent future flood damage, Lund noted. But then they both left politics soon after.
At Klein’s request, Lund set up a task force to determine what had to be done provincewide to prevent flooding, but he said he never did see the finished report that estimated the cost of flood-proofing 54 municipalities would exceed $300 million.
As Klein’s term came to an end in 2006, Lund said the party whip directed him to wind up the task force operations.
Groeneveld was angry that the committee wasn’t given more time to finish its work, Lund recalled.
“I had no choice,” he said. “I was told to roll up the committee.”
Lund said the report was not completed before he left office so he couldn’t take it to cabinet. He said it needed more cost analysis.
“One of the things we all learn is if you release a half-baked report, you’re asking for trouble,” Lund said in an interview.
He said he briefed Stelmach about the committee’s work shortly after he was sworn in, but that was the extent of his involvement.
“Just days after he became premier, I met with him and went over some things I was working on — ring roads and highways and George’s committee,” Lund said.
Stelmach has no recollection of Lund briefing him on the Groeneveld report, said Cam Hantiuk, who served as Stelmach’s spokesman during the premier’s later years in office. The former premier declined to be interviewed.
Lund said it is disappointing little action was taken on the report because it was clear to him even then there would be more flooding.
He said he hopes the Redford government dusts off the report, does the necessary cost analysis and implements the key recommendations.
“Every time I reported to caucus and to treasury about the situation, I would say: ‘It’s not a case of if, it’s when,’” Lund said. “We’re going to have more floods. That’s a given. Rather than fixing after the fact, let’s do some things that would mitigate these problems.”