Submitted Photo John MacLaren
Pretty wild prairie flowers overlooking the meandering South Saskatchewan River. Medicine Hat is one of a number of Alberta communities to benefit from federal government funding to deal with flood mapping and to support emergency response and long-term flood planning.
Medicine Hat News
Medicine Hat is on the list of more than two dozen Alberta communities to get new and replacement flood mapping to support emergency response and long-term planning.
The Alberta government, in a news release Monday, said Ottawa is providing $8.7 million through the National Disaster Mitigation Program for 18 projects, including flood-preventative measures in Medicine Hat.
The Gas City suffered a major flood in 2013, costing millions of dollars in damages. As a result, a series of berms has been built to protect low-lying areas from high spring runoff in the South Saskatchewan River.
Besides Medicine Hat, flood mapping funds are being provided for Drumheller, Siksika Nation, Red Deer and more than 100 kilometres of the North Saskatchewan River, including Edmonton.
The province said in its release that it was contributing more than $5 million to the projects as part of the cost-sharing agreement.
“Our government is committed to investing in flood resilience to better protect Albertans where they live and work,” said Shannon Phillips, minister of environment and parks. “The provincial and federal funding for flood mapping and community risk assessments will help us build safer communities … and ensure Alberta is better prepared for severe weather events in the future.”
Medicine Hat MLA Bob Wanner said he believes the city’s share of the funding will come to about $750,000, although he said he was unsure of the exact figure.
“It’s all really tied to climate change, that’s real,” said Wanner. “This city has been victims of that a few times over the years.”
Cypress-Medicine Hat MLA Drew Barnes said because Medicine Hat has shown “to be susceptible to floods,” that it’s “nice to be protected.”
He said it was primarily Medicine Hat tax dollars used to build the berm system and isn’t sure “whether full reimbursement has happened.”
“But people in Medicine Hat and around this province show that they’re very willing to help each other.”
Overall, he said, “it was a positive announcement.”
Wanner said 75 to 80 per cent of the money for Medicine Hat’s berm system was provincial money “but I don’t have the up-to-date details in front of me.”
Alberta has launched 13 river hazard studies since 2015, including those that are wholly funded by the province.
The government press release said that since 2013, Alberta has invested more than $700 million in community-level resilience projects, erosion control, upstream storage, flood mapping, flood forecasting and emergency preparedness, and watershed health to improve flood and drought resilience across the province.
