More than $1.5 million-worth of repairs to the Sumas River dike will be completed by the end of the month, Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth confirms.
The B.C. government, City of Abbotsford and Sumas First Nation provided an update on the flood recovery work in Abbotsford and the Sumas Valley on Thursday.
“Today, we are standing at the Sumas River Main Dike, one of the two dikes that were breached last November. Since last year’s flooding, Emergency Management BC funded temporary repairs to the dikes, but some water continued to flow onto farmland through the summer and into the fall,” said Farnworth.
“We are very pleased that the City of Abbotsford, with the support of the Sumas First Nation, is moving forward with permanent repairs to the Sumas River Dike.”
Farnworth also announced more than $41 million has been approved to repair and restore sites along the Sumas River, Clayburn Creek, Kilgard Creek and Vedder Canal. That includes debris removal, and repairing damaged dikes and riverbanks.
More than 500 sites have been cleared so far.
The flooding has also fostered a better relationship with the state of Washington, Farnworth added.
“In March, B.C. Premier John Horgan and Washington Gov. Jay Inslee announced a transboundary initiative to respond to the more frequent and severe flooding of the Nooksack River caused by climate change,” he said.
A new governance structure is also in the works in collaboration with Washington, municipal, Indigenous, provincial, state and federal officials, he said.
“The ongoing risk of flooding is very real. Our government’s flood strategy aims to understand flooding risks, enhance preparedness and response, and invest in flood resilience,” Farnworth explained.
The B.C. government is looking for public feedback on its flood response. Officials have created a “Flood Strategy Survey” that will remain open until Jan. 6, 2023.
Sumas First Nation Chief Dalton Silver said collaboration on the work remains paramount.
“It was a catastrophe that happened here a year ago. There are many people still recovering and the work that needs to be done needs to be done together,” he told reporters.
“I really do hope we can move forward together and create a better place for our people in the future.”
Meanwhile, an Indigenous-led collaborative in B.C. wants better accountability for the use of a federal $5-billion recovery fund dedicated to the disaster. The group seeking more integrated and resilient flood planning says there is little information about how the recovery fund, provided last December, has been allocated or spent.
The collaborative says it is encouraged by the province’s public consultations on flood strategy, but the remainder of the $5-billion fund should be dedicated to its own approaches.
Those include redesigning programs and regulations to boost regional cooperation on flood-resilient infrastructure and creating a watershed security fund that would direct some of the federal recovery dollars to strengthen B.C.’s natural flood defences.
—With files from The Canadian Press
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