Floods hurting St. Lazare business

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This article was published 10/09/2014 (4299 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

What was once a bustling Main Street in St. Lazare has lately looked more like a ghost town.

The summer flood forced the main route into town, Highway 41, to close for most of the season — which had a major impact on local businesses.

Kyle Fouillard, manager of Fouillard Furniture & Appliances, says if the province does not step up with flood mitigation plans, it could be “the beginning of the end” for the community.

“Right now, our river is spilling its banks, and if it maintains this level, then we’re going to be in a lot of trouble come spring,” Fouillard said. “If it keeps happening, there’s going to be nothing left for us.”

Fouillard Furniture is a family business that opened its doors back in 1967. The furniture store experienced a major hit during the 2011 flood, as well as the summer flood this year. Highway 41 south of the town was closed for 31 days during the month of May 2011.

“On a good year we can expect May to be one of best months for sales. In 2011, it was our worst,” Fouillard said.

Highway 41 is the main entrance for St. Lazare’s market, which includes customers from Rocanville, Moosomin, Elkhorn, Whitewood and other communities.

“This took a major toll on our business. As a consumer looking to do business in St.Lazare, do you take the one- to three- hour detour to get to St. Lazare, or do you drive to the larger centre in half of the time?”

Highway 41 remained closed for more than three weeks this summer due to the rising Assiniboine River and was gradually re-opened, but with weight restrictions.

“I go out with a truck and trailer to deliver … my main market is Rocanville, etc., so I was, twice a week, travelling an extra 140 kilometres one way to make the deliveries,” Fouillard said.

The road closure has had a major impact on other businesses, including the restaurant, grocery store and gas station.

Fouillard said businesses often depended on the traffic through town, such as grain and gravel haulers, potash haulers, oil rig vehicles and Manitoba Hydro workers. Before the trouble with the flood, Fouillard estimates 30 to 40 vehicles would stop in town per day, and losing that business has had a significant impact.

“They’re not going through town anymore, they’re not stopping at lunch to fill the small restaurant, they’re not stopping to grab drinks or grab snacks at the grocery store.”

As a result of the downturn, the gas station, restaurant and grocery store are all up for sale.

Fouillard would like to see the province come up with a plan to help the community — he suggested a new dam to control the water.

“I’m no engineer by any means, but I would like to see something going forward, a plan. We haven’t seen anything in four years. There hasn’t been anything done, any prevention methods, any preparation.”

Premier Greg Selinger said the province will work with the St. Lazare community on “additional improvements for flood protection.”

Selinger said flood protection is one of the key priorities in the province’s $5.5-billion infrastructure program over the next five years.

“We did know this spring that there were some properties outside of the dike that were impacted by water,” Selinger said. “We sent a special crew out there … to make sure that we could help them with sandbagging, but if there’s additional things we can do to prevent people from having heartache and hardship, we’d be happy to work with the municipality to do that.”

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