Alberta Auditor General to investigate flood preparedness

EDMONTON – Alberta’s Auditor General will look into how the province responded to last month’s massive flooding along with its plans to prevent similar disasters in the future.

In a letter, Auditor General Merwan Saher says the audit would be completed in two phases; one to evaluate the disaster response and another to examine the plan to prevent future flood damage.

According to Saher’s response, the first phase would “examine the government’s systems to identify what lessons can be learned from the June 2013 flooding and the systems used to produce the planned actions necessary for flood mitigation.”

The second phase would “examine the government’s systems to implement its flood mitigation plan and report on progress.” (Read the full letter below).

“We welcome the Auditor General to investigate whatever he wants, that’s his job,” said Municipal Affairs Minister Doug Griffiths. “So when he does, I think he’ll be very happy with the work that we’re doing based on these floods in 2013, and how we’re tracking what we’re doing with tax dollars. I’m sure he’ll have great recommendations, but anything he asks us to improve upon we will.”

Alberta NDP leader Brian Mason requested an audit of the government’s flood mitigation efforts between November 2006 and prior to the June floods. The Provincial Flood Mitigation Report was completed in 2006.

“If his request is for the Auditor General to inspect that – and I saw his letter, the Auditor General  didn’t refer to that – so I guess that’s between the Auditor General and Mr. Mason,” added Griffiths.

A key recommendation in that report was to stop allowing construction in flood-prone zones.

On June 24, the government approved $1 billion for flood relief; however the total cost of recovery and rebuilding could be several billions.

“Albertans need to be assured that this money is going where it needs to go and that it is being used in an effective manner to provide support and relief to the families affected by the flooding,” said Mason. “I’m pleased that the Auditor General will be investigating this PC government’s actions to prepare and respond to this disaster, as this government obviously didn’t take action when it should have to implement the recommendations from the 2006 report.”

“I’m pleased that the Auditor General will review the government’s flood mitigation efforts,” clarified Mason Tuesday afternoon, “but I wanted to stress to him the importance of reviewing the 2006 report and whether any of the damage that was done in this year’s flooding could have been prevented,” said Mason.  “Albertans have every right to know what specific efforts the government took to mitigate flood damages, especially in light of the billions of dollars this flood will cost Albertans, and the massive hole that this creates in our budget.”

The Wildrose Official Opposition has said much of the devastation from the southern Alberta floods could have been prevented if the province had built on the flood mitigation measures recommended in a 2006 report.

“I think the couple of recommendations that weren’t really followed up were having the caveat on land titles, and not allowing people to build in flood plains, which we’ve acted on now,” said Griffiths. “But, you know, 99.9 per cent of the homes we’re talking about were built before well before any of those recommendations ever came forward… I don’t know that it would have made a major impact.”

Saher says the government is currently reviewing its own flood mitigation plan, and that he would consider the first phase of an audit once that review is complete.

AG-Flood Investigation Letter (2)