The Waterways Here For You information session has been postponed until December 15th.
The overwhelming majority of residents who participated in both formal and informal public engagement sessions indicated they wanted their community is to rebuild.
On December 7th the Wood Buffalo Recovery Committee passed a motion to have Administration develop a long-term flood mitigation strategy that accomplishes the following:
- Ensures that residents within flood hazard areas will be fully eligible for Disaster Recovery Program (DRP) funding for future flood events.
- Allows the current waivers being required as conditions of approval to re-develop fire damaged properties in the flood hazard areas to be dismissed from all affected land as soon as the flood mitigation strategy is fully implemented.
- That there will be no Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo buyout of any or all properties within the flood hazard areas as a flood mitigation strategy.
If this commitment to flood mitigation is adopted by council it will provide certainty and clarity on Waterways’ future.
The province has communicated that Waterways will be protected by Disaster Recovery Program eligibility pending an RMWB commitment to 1-in-100 year flood level mitigation that is currently defined and accepted at the 250m level.
The Municipality expects flood mitigation will be included on the Council agenda for Tuesday. December 13th.
