The Water Security Agency (WSA) has earmarked $2 million in extra funding after the widespread flooding northern Saskatchewan weathered this summer.
The money brings this year’s funding up to $2.5 million as the area’s high water levels peak and disperse, leaving communities to shoulder the costs of waterlogged grazing lands, affected cabins and washed-out roads.
While not compensation for property damage, WSA spokesman Patrick Boyle said the money will help offset costs and mitigate flooding before it becomes an issue later.
The money is available to businesses, organizations, municipalities and individuals. It can also be accessed retroactively, if flood prevention costs are tracked. The agency further removed the program’s $100,000 funding cap per applicant.
The WSA aims to study the effects of this year’s flooding and future mitigation efforts, Boyle added. That includes areas near the La Ronge dam, where hot, dry weather has allayed fears that it would break and affect the nearby Churchill River basin.
Each dollar invested in flood prevention could save between $20 and $30 in property damage, Boyle said.
However, the new support may have mixed reception in some communities affected by the flooding this summer.
“If it helps to mitigate flood damage, … I think it would be a good thing,” Meadow Lake Reeve Timothy McKay said, noting the nearby Beaver River floods often.
McKay said a study of the river from the 1970s identified some of the weakness that recent flooding revealed, but it was never acted on. He hadn’t heard of the WSA announcement and said $2 million in prevention would be a drop in the bucket following the damage flooding caused.
Damage costs related to affected local roadways alone could total between $2 million and $4 million, he estimated.
Don Campbell, an affected rancher near the Beaver River, said while the water has dropped, much of his land will take two years to fully recover. He’s less concerned with flood prevention help from the province, noting ranchers in the area have asked for land lease fees to be waived as part of a more effective response.
Cumberland House Mayor Kelvin McKay said Cumberland House narrowly missed water overflowing a gap in its berm protections.
McKay said he previously struggled to secure funding from the WSA to close that gap. This year, the community escaped without it becoming an issue, but the future may not be so lucky, he said.
While he hadn’t heard of the new funding, he said he will apply for it.
“You don’t do that while the threat is there. You do it before,” he said.
