No Flood Mitigation Funding for Merritt, Princeton and Abbotsford

Three B.C. municipalities devastated by flooding in 2021, are calling on the federal government to change the way it funds climate change disaster prevention after all being turned down for critical flood infrastructure funding through the Disaster Mitigation and Adaptation Fund (DMAF).

Merritt Mayor Mike Goetz was in Abbotsford on Monday joining Princeton Mayor Spencer Coyne and Abbotsford Mayor Ross Siemens to voice their displeasure over what he calls ” a slap in the face of Western civilization”.

In November 2021, an atmospheric river event disrupted major railway lines, closed several major highways, halted the movement of people, goods and services, resulting in severe disruptions to the Asia Pacific gateway supply chain, closed the US/Canada border, and devastated businesses, farms, residences and distressed residents.

In Merritt, the storm necessitated dozens of swift water rescues, and caused the flooding of hundreds of homes, months of lost school days, and hundreds of millions of dollars in destruction, including a bridge collapse, a wastewater treatment plant failure, and extensive private and public property damage.

Mayor Goetz, like his colleagues from Abbotsford and Princeton said he feels abandoned by the Trudeau government.

“Senior levels of government promised to support us. They told us this was the way to get it,” said Merritt Mayor Goetz. “We have shared detailed engineering reports that say the return-on-investment of this design is 7:1. Honestly, if preventing an almost guaranteed future disaster with a project like this doesn’t make the cut, I can’t imagine what projects in Canada will.”

The City of Merritt developed a comprehensive Flood Mitigation Plan to support their DMAF application. This plan provided updated river modelling that details that a much greater number of homes are now at risk (1,270 homes are now identified as in the flood zone compared to the 130 homes previously identified in the original Provincial floodplain modelling). The flood protections that Merritt had prior to 2021 are now washed down the river and the city remains extremely vulnerable to future and inevitable flooding.

“I stand here today with these other communities (Abbotsford and Princeton) and I demand better for our people,” Goetz said. “We pay taxes to the Federal Government that should come back to us when we need them. I’m not asking for anything that isn’t ours. Give us our money back.”

Merritt’s application proposed a system of setback dikes that would increase riparian area, provide room for the river, and provide safety and protection for the thousand-plus residents who now find themselves in a flood inundation zone after modern engineering projections tripled the potential flood levels.

Despite preparing such strategies, Merritt like Abbotsford and Princeton are left wondering how they will be able to find the funding they desperately need to ensure their communities are prepared in the face of increasing extreme climate events.