REGINA – It’s fair to say that Pat Bischoff was looking for a little more when he attended a meeting Tuesday in Maple Creek to hear about the Saskatchewan government’s Provincial Disaster Assistance Program (PDAP).
“The whole think was a joke as far as I’m concerned,” said Bischoff. “If I worked for the government, I’d be embarrassed. It’s that simple.
“What are they offering us? Nothing. The list of what’s not covered is far longer than what they’re going to cover.”
Bischoff and other residents of the town that suffered the worst flooding in its history last week, went to the meeting in hopes of hearing exactly how to access money available through PDAP (up to $160,000 per claim). Many, however, felt they only heard that many of their expenses will not be covered.
“I think they thought that because we were considered to be in a state of disaster, there actually would be some assistance,” said Bischoff, who operates Creative Woodworks out of a 1,600-square-foot workshop at his home. “There is assistance, but I don’t think it’s what people expected. People were awful anxious to just get up and leave.”
Bischoff said most of his material is now garbage and several tools and motors spent time under 12 inches of water. He estimates the damage to be well into the thousands of dollars.
When told about the meeting Wednesday morning, Premier Brad Wall stressed that PDAP funding would be flexible.
“I’ve done a lot of checking as a result of some the coverage this morning,” Wall told reporters at the Legislature. “I phoned the mayor of Maple Creek, talked to senior officials who report that flexibility was stressed but officials had to say “˜Look, here are the rules that are in place but there’s going to be flexibility.’ I’m not surprised at all, I’d be the same way for those who were in attendance to only hear the rules part … we’re going to be flexible with respect to the cap. I think for residences it’s reasonable but again for businesses, it may not be so we need to be flexible in this regard and we will be flexible in this regard. I can’t stress that enough. The program is there to help people and we’re going to make sure that it helps people.
“I think we can look at the cap. I think we’ll just be reasonable about it. These are uninsurable damages that have occurred, they couldn’t have insured for them and so the government needs to be there and we will be. We’re not going to sort of write rules right now as we go. Adjusters are going to be on the scene, we’re going to make sure there are enough adjusters on the scene … I think we’ll be taking their counsel as well as officials’ advice on what flexibility might be appropriate given the circumstances.”
Meanwhile, crews working on the Trans-Canada Highway at Maple Creek – where the westbound lanes were destroyed as was the passing lane of the eastbound side – were slowed by rain in the area on Tuesday and did not get as much of the fix completed as they had hoped. Gravel being hauled in to fix the hole was slowed by soft roads.
Now Ministry of Highways and Infrastructure spokesperson Doug Wakabayashi said it will likley be Saturday when the highway re-opens with a temporary two-lane highway on the east side.
Crews have almost completely covered the culvert which runs underneath the highway and that will allow workers to infill the area more quickly.
The private contractors brought in to work on the project are to join provincial employees in working around the clock.
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