Mr. Speaker, last week, I again toured areas devastated by the Manitoba floods of 2011 and met with flood victims and municipal leaders.
Flood victims have had to deal with heartache and headache, and do not seem to be any closer to putting this ordeal behind them.
These people were artificially flooded by the province due to the operation of the Assiniboine diversion. Not one drop of water that enters the Assiniboine River naturally flows into Lake Manitoba. Water levels in Lake Manitoba are still high and there are no plans by the provincial government to build an outlet that can accommodate the higher flows.
Our federal government has improved the disaster financial assistance arrangements and advanced $50 million to the Province of Manitoba to help offset the costs of this flood. Economic action plan 2012 also provides $99 million over three years to assist with the cost of permanent flood mitigation.
The Province of Manitoba is the lead agency for operating emergency measures and processing claims, and its slow pace of settling claims for flood victims and municipalities is adding insult to injury.
It is time for the provincial government to show some resolve and come up with actual solutions and not excuses.