Disaster funding from feds ‘can’t wait’ says Halifax mayor

CITYnews halifax \ By Steve Gow

As officials assess and repair damage from this weekend’s flooding event, the mayor of Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM) says “infrastructure everywhere has to be a priority.”

Although public works says progress has been made on repairs in areas where floodwaters have receded, roads and bridges right around the province have been washed out or damaged.

A provincewide state of emergency declared on Saturday will remain in effect until Aug. 5, and on Sunday, federal Emergency Preparedness Minister Bill Blair approved a request from the province for continued assistance.

However, Mike Savage told CityNews that the municipality will need to rely on that assistance from the federal government sooner than later.

“The feds have a pretty robust budget for this kind of stuff,” says Savage. “But we need the money quickly; we can’t wait indefinitely. We have to put the money out to fix those things that need to be fixed.”

According to Savage, there were over 300 work orders placed with the municipality over the weekend to address roads and bridges impacted by flooding.

He says another 80 or so orders had to do with park infrastructure.

Savage says the municipality has significant public infrastructure issues, adding that as extreme weather events increase in our region, the infrastructure will continue to take a pummeling.

He says he’s pleased with Halifax’s climate action plan but long-term solutions still need to be addressed regarding how and where we build infrastructure.

Heavy rain, which began Friday, dumped between 200 and 250 millimetres (mm) along Nova Scotia’s South Shore, across the Halifax area and into central and western parts of the province.

While the floodwaters had largely receded by Sunday, they left behind a network of damaged and washed out roads and bridges in the province, including in the municipality’s Bedford and Sackville communities.