Madam Speaker, last November, I asked a question in the House about the flooding in British Columbia. As emergency preparedness and climate resiliency critic for the NDP, I wanted to hear from the minister that the federal government would be there to help the communities. In particular, I asked about the hard-wired requirement in federal disaster funding that municipalities have to kick in 20% of any disaster recovery cost.
I used the town of Princeton as an example, a small community of about 2,800 people with an annual taxation budget of about $3 million. Three hundred people in Princeton lost their homes in recent floods when the Tulameen and Similkameen rivers overflowed. Recovery costs for the community was estimated at $10 million, which meant Princeton was responsible for $2 million, almost doubling its entire annual budget. It is clear that this 20% share just does not work for small communities.
I got a fairly positive response to my question. The minister said that the government would be there for the people of British Columbia and a joint committee made up of federal and provincial representatives was being formed that would coordinate and communicate with municipal leaders.
Today, I talked with Spencer Coyne, the mayor of Princeton, to see how things were going three months after the floods. He was, I would say, distressed to say that they were not going well. Those 300 people are still homeless. Funding from the Red Cross that has provided shelter for those affected households is scheduled to run out next week, but it might be extended for another month. It is still winter in Princeton, and a full assessment of the damages will not be possible until the spring thaw later in March. Recent estimates suggest that the $10 million estimate for the recovery may be far too low and the actual figure could be as high as $20 million.
I asked the mayor specifically about communications with the federal government, and he said that he was given a phone number to contact the Prime Minister's Office. He called that number and was basically told to call the province. However, the province is already providing its share of the recovery effort, pitching in with all the necessary emergency repairs and other supports.
Mr. Coyne went on to suggest that the federal government could provide emergency funding for those 300 people who are still homeless. He has been told that federal supports are still in negotiation and asked me to plead that this be fast-tracked so that funds could be released as soon as possible. He felt that the government was asking for all the details of all the damages up front when those details and the total figure would not be known for many months. I will add that the nearby community of Merritt is in a similar position with 800 residents still homeless.
To sum up, small communities such as Princeton and Merritt are suffering, not just from catastrophic floods but from a bureaucracy that is not geared at all to towns of their size, putting a financial burden on their shoulders that they simply cannot bear in this time of great need.