Flood victims should have a cheque in their hands within two weeks of filing their claims, according to associate minister Kyle Fawcett.
Fawcett, the associate minister of recovery and reconstruction for southwest Alberta, made the promise June 29 at the Bragg Creek Community Centre. He said resources will soon be set up for Bragg Creek residents — along with effected individuals in the surrounding areas — to apply for the government’s Disaster Recovery Programs.
“The premier has asked me to make sure that residents, businesses and municipalities are getting access to resources in a timely manner and in a manner that allows communities to rebuild in a thoughtful, coordinated, effective way,” he commented. “The sooner we can get communities back up on their feet, the better off we’ll be as a province.
“We’ve been able to make some changes to the process that will allow us to start getting money into people’s hands sooner than we have in the past…. We’re hoping that people, from the time they have their claim registered, will have an initial cheque within seven to 14 days.”
The feat isn’t going to easy, added Fawcett. He said the biggest challenge will be getting resources up and running so people can begin to make claims through the programs. He said each claim will be assigned a case worker, who will walk applicants through the process.
Fawcett said he couldn’t even begin to estimate the value of government expenditure for the programs post-flood.
To put the cost in perspective, Fawcett mentioned the figured paid out to those effected by the Slave Lake fire in 2011. He said government expenditures totaled about $250 million — paid out through a variety of programs, including the disaster recovery programs. In addition, he said insurance companies shelled out about $700 million in claims on personal property. Overall, between insurance and government, about $1 billion was paid out for Slave Lake recovery.
Overland flooding is an uninsurable cause of disaster, meaning the provincial and federal government will be picking up a significant portion of the tab with the disaster recovery program, said Fawcett.
“The scope of this event, the flooding in southern Alberta, is — I don’t even want to hazard a guess — but it’s way greater than Slave Lake,” he said. “The number of properties impacted, the amount of infrastructure taken out is not even close to being comparable. When you combine all of that, you have a very draining event on the government’s finances. But we’re committed to doing whatever we can as a government to make sure that communities are, not just rebuilt to where they were, but are built to achieve even greater things than they were before.”
As resources become available, Fawcett said residents will be able to find out where to apply for the programs.
