Hard-hit Fraser Valley Regional District makes ‘urgent plea’ for provincial flood relief

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The chair of the Fraser Valley Regional District — which has seen some of the most devastating damage from the storms and flooding in B.C. — says the province’s system for providing relief to local governments in emergencies is “broken”

On Tuesday, Jason Lum issued what he called “an urgent plea for immediate help,” saying dozens of requests for funding and support from the province have been submitted, and have either received a delayed response or no response at all. The regional district encompasses 14,000 square kilometres from Abbotsford to Boston Bar.

“Roads, water systems, diking infrastructure, sewer systems, as well as bridges are at serious risk of either washing away or suffering catastrophic damage,” he said.

“We need the province to advance emergency funds now so that we can do the work to save lives, property, and infrastructure. There are homes on the verge of falling into the river and they need help today, not tomorrow, or in the coming days or weeks. I want to emphasize we need our partners in government to react quickly when a response comes — not hours or days after the fact. It is clear to us that the response system is broken, and it is failing us and the residents of our elected areas.”

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Asked about these concerns, Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth said there have been no delays, work doesn’t require provincial approval, and that it can and should proceed at the local level.

“To be clear, the claim that local governments need to wait on the province to receive authorization to take public safety actions is incorrect. In fact, there are countless communities around the Province taking the actions necessary to protect their communities as we speak,” he said in a statement to CityNews.

Approval of an Expenditure Authorization Form, Farnworth says, citing the “direction and provincial structure provided to local governments,” is not required in order for work to proceed.

“The local authority should take action, if appropriate, to reduce the immediate threat of injury or loss. Such action does not require approval of expenditures by the Province. However, local authorities are advised to obtain authorization of financial assistance to check assumptions about which response costs the province considers eligible for financial assistance, especially when dealing with large cost items,” the statement continues.

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    Lum said he would welcome the opportunity to discuss the matter directly with Farnworth, “so I can bring him up to speed with the situation evolving on the ground here.” He added the district has submitted more than 50 requests, all of which are “well documented.”

    An example Lum outlined in a statement was a request for $1.5 million to respond to shore up Othello Road near Hope. That request, he says, went in on Nov. 24, and approval did not come until five days later.

    “By then, the road was gone, so were the houses,” he writes, adding there are still “several homes teetering on the edge of the washout, at risk of being swallowed by the Coquihalla River.”

    He also says a request for $30,000 to compensate volunteer firefighters was denied.

    “[They] have been working around the clock for over 10 days straight doing life-saving work here in the Fraser Valley Regional District. It is absolutely imperative that we support the volunteer efforts and the volunteer first responders that are sometimes first on-site in some of these critical incidents,” he says, calling the denial “an insult.”

    Asked how many homes and businesses have been lost, Lum said it’s impossible to give an answer yet.

    “We’re tracking over 57 separate incidents across a vast region, and it’s literally changing minute by minute,” he says.

    “[Residents] have lost their homes, they’ve lost their livelihoods, and it’s absolutely heartbreaking. The situation really is critical here in the Regional District. The point is that when we ask for emergency funding, we need those funds to be advanced immediately. We shouldn’t be waiting around. This is an extremely trying time, and I’m worried that the worst is yet ahead of us.”

    With files from Tarnjit Parmar and Nikitha Martins

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