‘We haven’t received anything’: Lack of flood relief stalls rebuild for Sumas Prairie farmers

Farmers whose homes and livelihoods were destroyed when catastrophic flooding hit Abbotsford’s Sumas Prairie say their efforts to rebuild are at a standstill because they haven’t received any relief from the government.

Sukh Aulakh closed a deal on a property in mid-November. His plan was to build a home next to the field of mature blueberry plants.

“We looked around everything was in perfect shape, I was excited, I’m buying a farm,” he told CityNews.

The rain was pounding down while he was at a lawyer’s office signing papers, and then he received a phone call from a friend who owns a farm nearby who told him the Sumas Dike had been breached. Aulakh asked that friend if he could send him photos or video of what was happening.

“He had hardly 20 seconds to make a video. That’s how fast water was flowing in that area. I was totally shocked.”

RELATED: Abbotsford farmers devastated by destruction of homes, crops in flooding

For the next two weeks, RCMP roadblocks meant he couldn’t get back to his property to survey the damage.

“My kids were asking ‘Dad when can we see the farm?’ he says. “I was like completely shocked for like two weeks.”

When he got back, he began to realize the extent of the damage.

“I had about six to seven feet tall plants, they were all underwater … There was a lot of garbage. There were logs, there were trees, there were dead animals.”

Since then, he’s been trying to figure out how to move forward. The money he was expecting to make from the blueberries was supposed to go a long way toward paying the mortgage on the land.

“I sold my house, I took all the money from the house and put everything in the field as a down payment,” he says.

“All my blueberries are dead, plants are dead. And my mortgage payment’s coming due. I don’t know what I’m going to do because there’s no production. Those plants, they’re not going to produce any fruit in the future. I don’t know what we are going to do. I think we have to replant the whole farm. Everything is finished.”

Even if the field is replanted, he says it could take three years for the plants to yield fruit and generate the income he was planning on using to pay his mortgage and build a home.

But any plans to replant are on hold because he hasn’t received any relief from the government.

“I got no relief. I’m not sure what I’m going to do in the future. Hopefully, we get some financial help from the government. Everybody is on their toes.”

In a statement, B.C.’s Ministry of Agriculture said farmers impacted by flooding can expect more news on what help is coming their way soon.

“We are working very hard with the federal government to finalize the best way to support farmers under these difficult circumstances, and we will have an announcement on financial supports soon.” 

“The ministry has been in regular contact with berry farmers to best understand the challenges they are facing,” a spokesperson continues.

The province says farmers who have been paying out of pocket should save their receipts, and document the work that has been done. The ministry also says farmers can expect to be compensated for costs associated with replacing plants and infrastructure.

Harry Sidhu says two of his family’s farms growing blueberries in the Sumas Prairie region flooded, and they can’t wait any longer to begin the gruelling task of ripping and replanting.

“We need financial relief, what’s happened here is a disaster, it’s a disaster due to neglect. It was known an event of this magnitude would happen at one time or another and we’ve been severely impacted by this,” he says.

“We haven’t received anything.”

Opposition MLAs met with farmers Monday and accused the NDP government of stopping in for photo ops and leaving.

“They need to know what supports the government is going to provide to them, and they need to know now,” said BC Liberal MLA Ian Paton.

Emergency Management BC says work is ongoing to get relief to those impacted sooner, noting the average wait time for funding has been 5.3 weeks.

“We are working to make this process move as fast as possible. We know people need this money,” a spokesperson says in an email.

“Due to the extreme nature of this event, we are concerned that claims could take longer to process than in the past as we are hit by a surge of applications.”

Satpal Sangha saw his dream home destroyed by the floods, his plans to retire on a blueberry farm put on hold indefinitely.

Since being allowed back onto his property, he has been working with friends and family to clear debris.

“We took out all the furniture and put it on the front yard and then we started ripping the drywall,” he says.

The damage, he tells CityNews, has been estimated at $763,000 dollars.

“We’ve been waiting for the government.”

While waiting, Sangha’s been confronted with another problem.

“There was a break-in in my house after the water came down. Some people, they started stealing stuff from our houses because they know we are not there. I was sleeping in my truck since that day.”

Dozens of ⁦@Sumasprairie⁩ farmers who feed the hundreds people are feeling homeless and hopeless today. Still they don’t know if they will ever able to return their damaged homes.⁦@City_Abbotsford⁩ ⁦@BCStorm⁩ ⁦@OMNIpunjabi⁩ pic.twitter.com/yrPBjIMddy

— Prabhjot Kahlon (@PrabhjotKahlon) November 25, 2021

The Abbotsford Police Department has confirmed that — in November and December of last year — there were 11 break-ins and 6 thefts reported in the Sumas Prairie.

“The break-ins were either vacant homes, outbuildings, or garages. The thefts were mainly from within vehicles or items reported taken from properties,” says Cst. Paul Walker in an email.

“We continue to patrol this area day and night to ensure that we add an extra layer of protection for the residents out there and to hold those responsible that are involved in crime.”

RELATED: Funding for B.C. farmers impacted by devastating floods on its way

Abbotsford Mayor Henry Braun estimated more than 1,200 acres of blueberry fields were flooded. About 4,000 tonnes of stored and unharvested field vegetables were lost and an estimated 628,000 chickens, 420 cattle, and 12,000 hogs died, provincial officials said at the time.

Severe drought and destructive wildfires last summer prompted the B.C. and federal governments to allocate $20 million to help farmers and ranchers recover, while a summer heat dome scorched berry crops in the same prime agricultural area in the Fraser Valley that was devastated by November’s flooding.

Other farmers in Abbotsford have launched a class-action lawsuit against the city, province, and the Fraser Valley Regional District, claiming governments failed to properly warn them about the floods.

With files from The Canadian Press