Swan River mayor wants military help

WINNIPEG — The mayor of a flood-hit town in western Manitoba is urging the federal government to move swiftly on aid for weary victims, who are seeking assurance more help is on the way.

Federal and provincial officials were scheduled to meet Friday after Premier Wab Kinew on Wednesday asked Ottawa to send military personnel to the Parkland region to assist with the response and cleanup of floods that have been described as unprecedented.

“In the days to come, and this may be within five days, the residents down there are going to need help,” Swan River Mayor Lance Jacobson said about neighbourhoods that remained under water Friday.

“They are going to need help with the cleanup. There will be volunteers, there are companies that will help to do this, too, but it’s going to be limited, and this is the reason why I said we need some military support.”

The pace of the federal government’s response to the floods could be consistent with past disasters, “but, to me, sometimes it’s not fast enough,” he said.

“If we look at federal support or provincial support, that has to reassure people and move fast,” Jacobson said. “Get rid of the red tape, and let’s move on it and make these people feel like something is going to happen and support them.”

He estimated 150 to 200 homes in the town flooded when the rain-swollen Swan River rapidly rose and spilled into neighbourhoods Tuesday and Wednesday.

Parts of Swan River and surrounding communities also flooded in early June. Several volunteer organizations have been helping homeowners clean up and rebuild since then.

Military deployment would bring in “fresh people,” Jacobson said.

“People around here have been fighting this for a month. The volunteers are tired. They’ve been doing whatever they can,” he said.

“In this country, we have military personnel that is ready to go. I can’t see why the federal government still has not responded to the ask from our provincial government on providing military support to this region.”

Jacobson said he was disappointed not to hear from Prime Minister Mark Carney to offer support during the disaster. He has spoken to Tory MP Dan Mazier, whose Riding Mountain constituency includes Swan River.

After touring Swan River on Thursday, Kinew told reporters “more boots on the ground” are needed, while homeowners, local officials and volunteers work around the clock on little rest.

Weeks of additional work is ahead of them, he said.

“There’s definitely a need for more help because, in the hardest-hit areas in Swan River proper, there are folks who are still actively working to pump water out of homes that have been saved, to try and get into other areas to relieve some pressure,” Kinew said.

“We know that as the water starts to recede, there is going to be a whole heck of a lot of cleanup to get done. We’re certainly there as a province.”

The premier said he’d welcome aid in the form of the military or an organization such as Team Rubicon Canada, whose volunteers include veterans, emergency management personnel and first responders. The latter helped to protect Peguis First Nation from flooding in April.

In a statement Thursday, federal Emergency Management Minister Eleanor Olszewski acknowledged the request for assistance, but didn’t say what kind of help will come from Ottawa.

“We are working with the province to assess evolving local needs so together we can determine the best ways to support the flood response on the ground to ensure Manitobans get the help they need,” she said.

Spring and summer flooding will result in many millions of dollars in damage. Manitoba’s disaster financial assistance program and insurance claims will be part of the response, Jacobson noted.

“It’s not going to be enough. If we have seniors or people that have limited access to resources and money to rebuild again from what they had before, we’re talking millions of dollars,” he said. “Just in the housing itself is in the millions. We’re not even talking about infrastructure in the rural areas.”

Jacobson and Bill Gade, reeve of the Municipality of Swan Valley West, said they hope for financial assistance from Ottawa to support a lengthy recovery effort.

“They go help other countries that have devastation very quickly and rapidly, and provide millions of dollars for people in those countries — and there’s nothing wrong with that, I don’t disagree with it — but we have some big problems in our Parkland area right now,” Jacobson said.

“I’m not saying anywhere else in the country (doesn’t as well) because maybe there is, but sometimes the federal government has to look in its own backyard, too, and take care of our people.”

Gade did not call for military aid. He wants Ottawa to step forward with funding to help provide food and housing to the many volunteers and contractors needed to rebuild after the flood.

“When this water goes down, we need enough people to get into every basement and get every piece of drywall and insulation out and start drying out the homes so we don’t have to tear them down. Does that need to be the army? I don’t know. I’m not convinced,” he said. “We need to mobilize, we need to do some stuff and money makes that easier.”

Gade said he is not confident the military would arrive quickly enough to mitigate damage before mould sets in.

Dauphin is cleaning up after the Vermillion River spilled its banks earlier this week. Mayor David Bosiak said other Parkland communities are in greater need of federal aid.

“I think that support needs to go to Swan River and Pine River and northwest (of Dauphin), where they’re still physically cut off from Manitoba,” he said. “They’re devastated. We have damage. Swan River is half under water.”

Manitobans have submitted more than 1,000 disaster financial assistance claims for flooding to the province’s Emergency Management Organization since the start of June, a spokesperson said.

The province has given almost $5 million in advance funding to municipalities to help them address immediate needs, with more payments to come, the spokesperson said.

» Winnipeg Free Press, with files from Tyler Searle, Morgan Modjeski and Nicole Buffie