Merritt Mayor Michael Goetz said Tuesday he hopes Victoria's decision to give his community $60 million to relocate and rebuild two dikes damaged during flooding in 2021 rubs off on Ottawa.
"The province has always been there to help us through this and we are hoping some of us that rubs off on the federal government and they see what is happening here and they decide to throw their hand into the rink because we are still waiting for that part," Goetz said. "We haven't seen that yet."
He argued Ottawa's lack of support thus far to address Merritt's climate change woes stems from its political geography as a smaller community in B.C.'s interior.
"I have always said it: if we were on the East Coast, it would be different, but it is not, so we do need the federal government to come forward and help us with the remainder of this project."
Goetz made these comments in Merritt, where B.C. Emergency Management and Climate Readiness Minister Kelly Greene announced the province's contribution.
It will help the community relocate and rebuild two dikes along the Coldwater River, whose banks breached and flooded most of Merritt in November 2021 during a series of atmospheric rivers. The flooding forced the evacuation of 7,000 residents.
Greene called the funding a significant step forward.
"Moving and rebuilding these dikes will allow the river to flow more naturally, bringing ecosystem benefits while better protecting Merritt from future flooding," she said.
Sean Strang, Merritt's director of flood recovery and mitigation, said the project represents an efficient use of public funds.
"This will not build the entire system, but by the time this is done, this will get us 80 per cent of the way to completing a flood mitigation plan and ensuring the safety for all Merritt residents," he said.
He added that the funding covers 2.9 kilometres of the 4.9 kilometres of dikes slated for improvements under that plan and also cover improvements to other structures.
"We are expecting this to be a three- to five-year construction project," Strang said, noting that municipal staff have planning this for the past 3 1/2 years. He specifically pointed to the "complex regulatory environment" when it comes to working by rivers.
"We have been supported by the province in building two new dike systems already. We are quite familiar with the requirements. There is a very short window in the summer, however, that the actual construction can occur."
Strang said Merritt is now developing detailed engineering plans with a yet-to-be-determined amount of money going toward the purchase of private properties.
"Those numbers will be available in the coming months as we move through the detailed engineering process," he said. "We do have a process to deal directly with landowners and we have an arm's length third party to deal with all those questions."
Still unresolved is the fate of federal funding for Merritt's flood mitigation plan. Ottawa last summer rejected applications from Merritt, as well as flood-troubled Princeton and Abbotsford under the Disaster Mitigation and Adaptation Fund on what Goetz called a technicality.
"Basically, it didn't get read," he said. It went into the garbage can. I have been bitter about it ever since."
Goetz later added that he doesn't want to sound bitter and reiterated demands that Ottawa step in referencing the 2022 visit of then Liberal emergency minister Bill Blair.
"We had a (federal) minister here promising that we would not be forgotten, that we would not be left behind. So even though that minister has moved on, the other minister in his spot will still have to carry that promise out. I will make sure that happens, because you don't come to communities and make promises unless you are willing to see those promises come to fruition."
The question of support from the federal government relates directly to the final price tag for the flood mitigation plan. When Merritt council approved the plan in November 2022, its estimated price tag was $109 million, with the municipality readily noting it needed significant funding from Victoria and Ottawa.
Merritt Tuesday received verbal support from the provincial government when Greene said it is important for the federal government to be an 鈥渆nthusiastic partner鈥� in moving these projects forward.
She also pointed to changes effective April 1 that expand eligibility rules for disaster-related funding from the federal government.
Ironically, both Merritt and Princeton lobbied for those changes, but won't benefit from them.
"We helped build it and unfortunately, we don't get a seat on the bus," Goetz said.
