Last month’s flooding across Southern B.C. could delay the city’s upcoming flood works projects, according to Chief Administrative Officer Duncan Redfearn.
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Redfearn spoke to the issue at city council’s last regular meeting Monday, Nov. 22, where mayor and council voted to take on the operation, maintenance and regular inspection of dikes slated for downtown and North Ruckle.
“As we watch what’s happening throughout the province, there is definitely a concern that we have a number of permits that are in process and in-line to be approved. We really don’t know what all of this is going to do to our timelines looking at Grand Forks,” he told council.
The necessary construction permits, now with the forests ministry’s Deputy Inspector of Dikes, hinge on the city’s willingness to assume the obligations of a diking authority as per the Dike Maintenance Act, according to a staff memo supporting the resolution.
While there is no clear indication that recent flooding will upset the city’s permitting process, council heard that rebuilding the province’s highway and rail networks will draw on the construction materials and professional expertise needed to build the dikes.
“We don’t know how these events are going to impact our program, because we’re all using the same materials and the same people,” Redfearn said.
City staff will explore the issue in more detail at the next committee of the whole meeting Monday, Dec. 13, he explained.
The city will own all its flood works, including both dikes, according to the program charter for Grand Forks’ share of the Disaster Mitigation and Adaptation Fund, whose roughly $55.5 million in federal and provincial monies will fund the works.
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