For the first time, the new council in Merritt took a look at the final report for flood mitigation plans following last November’s atmospheric river event

Merritt Council was presented with five options for a more permanent dyking system, with the preferred option coming at a price tag of $167 million, which would ensure flooding won’t once again devastate the city.

However, Sean Strang, the City’s Chief Finance Officer explains a lack of available funding from the province and the feds is holding them back from moving forward with a plan.

“We’ve been pursuing funding since November, the province and even the feds to some extent have stepped up with what we call recovery funding.”

It comes as Strang says there isn’t any program to help the City with flood mitigation. He explains this as the federal government closed the Disaster Mitigation and Adaptation Fund.

“That’s the only program the only one that covers the kind of large-scale land buyout, dyke structure that needs to be done here, there is nothing else, and the feds closed the program.”

Strang says the province stepped up to the plate to fund a hydrological engineering study, with the final version being approved at council Tuesday night, to apply for a DMF application.

“The Feds closed it and didn’t even tell anyone, so we have no information on when they’re opening again, we’ve had many calls with them. They don’t seem to know when they’re opening again, they say there is no funding for it.”

“But yet there’s you know, there’s a lot of funding for all sorts of carbon reduction initiatives and alternative energy initiatives etcetera, etcetera, but no funding to deal with the actual mitigation of climate change. So it’s a frustrating thing for sure,” he said.

RELATED: Merritt rebuild efforts priority for Mayor and feds on one year atmospheric river anniversary

Pointing to the fact that Grand Forks is just building dykes after the flood of May 2018, Strang estimates it will be about four to five years before Merritt is protected.

“They (Grand Forks) actually had enough funding announcements on their one-year anniversary, which, you know, sadly we don’t. I visited there a couple of times this summer, which is four years in, and they were just starting to build dikes, they had kind of completed their voluntary buyout program of houses,” he said.

With that, Strang acknowledges rebuilding the City with flood mitigation will be a long project.

“It’s not like a road that you can just decide to build and build the next year. There’s a lot of moving pieces and a lot of funding decisions.”

Additionally, Strang hopes the BC Government will step up and help with a land trade program for more flood-affected residents.

RELATED: Merritt rebuild efforts priority for Mayor and feds on one year atmospheric river anniversary