Sicamous council may have to revisit the district’s financial plan to deal with flooding-related expenses not covered within the budget or by the provincial disaster relief fund.
Council received a heads-up at their last regular meeting from district interim administrator Doug Ruttan that the $20,000 budgeted for disaster relief may not cover all the expenses incurred by the district in dealing with the flash flood in Two Mile or flooding from high water.
“We have a $20,000 emergency disaster fund and what is at issue is obviously, during the hectic period of the last couple of weeks, some decisions had to be made at the spur of the moment,” explained Ruttan. “We’re not sure whether all those decisions are being covered by others. And we just want to give the heads-up to council that we may have to come back and ask council for a financial budget amendment .”
Asked if he had any idea what kind of an increase the district will see, Ruttan said he has been receiving feedback from the province and that some things he thought might not be covered by the B.C. government’s disaster relief fund may be after all.
Mayor Darrell Trouton noted a contracting company has been sent into Sicamous by the province to provide assistance, and the district is also receiving help in dealing with provincial disaster relief to “make sure we’re getting the best bang for our buck” in terms of recovery.
“We feel that as water goes down, there’s going to be more disaster costs associated with this – what is covered, what isn’t covered,” said Trouton. “The whole community wants to know. We need to know. We’re asking some real tough questions right now.”
