The Town of Canmore is requesting $16.7 million from the province for flood damages from the disaster recovery program (DRP).
Municipal disaster recovery coordinator Greg Burt said staff have been working on providing the province with the most detailed numbers possible in order to recuperate funds spent on emergency operations and damaged infrastructure from June’s flood.
Of the $16.7 million total, $3.3 million represents emergency operations and $13.4 million for damaged infrastructure. DRP funds are meant to return infrastructure to a pre-disaster functional state, but Burt said several future projects to repair flood damage will include extra long-term mitigations, which are not applicable for DRP funding.
“The intent of the DRP is to restore the state it existed in before and this is somewhat unique for Cougar Creek and Stoneworks Creek, as we do not intend to rebuild them (the same),” he said. “We are working on finalizing numbers and hopefully coming to an agreement with the DRP on what it would cost to rebuild to a former state and apply those funds to long-term mitigation.”
“All indications from the DRP are that the way we are approaching it is the correct way, but there are some discussions about what that final numbers will be.”
