Merritt needs Land Acquisition money for Dike Rebuilding or the City risks losing all funding

MERRITT — The federal government has agreed to fund over $46.5 million dollars of dike rebuilding in Merritt.

This was a monumental effort from Municipal and Provincial staff to use some creative solutions to get this done.

The distressing part though, is that the City can’t actually use a single dollar of this, until the province agrees to contribute $21.7 million to the project.

If the province does not commit this money, the federal funding will disappear, Merritt will have no money to rebuild dikes, and will be left more exposed to disaster than prior to November 2021.

Merritt has not been able to rebuild the pre-flood dikes, leaving the City more exposed than before the flood.

Provincial and Municipal staff have worked together for a year to secure $46.5 million in federal funding.

The City need a ministerial decision and $21.7 million to complete the project. Without being included in the budget process that is currently underway, Merritt risks the federal funding disappearing and Merritt having NO solution.

This is the last piece of funding required to rebuild the dike’s in Merritt, and without this one piece, none of the projects will work properly

This project is 100% shovel ready, with a funding letter RFP’s could be out the following day and the City would commence building this summer.

Merritt City staff have hundreds of pages of engineering, cost estimating, return-on-investment reports, council adoption paper, indigenous engagement and support documents, environmental studies.

“If there was ever a time when things were happening that just don’t make sense in the story of Merritt’s rebuilding, this is it.” –  Sean Strang, finance chief of the City of Merritt’s Recovery Operations Centre

The provincial budget process is happening right now, and shockingly this project isn’t on there, meaning the default path is losing this $46.5 million of federal money, and leaving thousands of Merritt residents at risk.

Merritt | High River Level from 2021