By Sebastian Kanally, Times Chronicle
Oliver is applying for $5 million in provincial funding to mitigate future floods that stem from Wolf Cub Creek.
Almost a year and a half after the freshet that overwhelmed Wolfcub Creek in May 2023, the town is pursuing mitigation efforts with an eye on projections for up to 200 years.
The town agreed at its Aug 26 meeting, to submit an application to the province under the Disaster Resilience and Innovation Funding (DRIF) program.
If successful, this new provincial funding stream could provide the town with $5 million to go towards flood mitigation work along the creek.
There have been numerous steps taken by the town since the freshet, but this is the first with a substantial amount of money to actually conduct mitigation efforts.
A brief timeline goes as follows:
- On May 6, 2023 the freshet overwhelmed creeks in the area, including Wolfcub Creek, and overflowed into people’s yards and at least one basement;
- In October 2023 the town applied for $45,000 through the Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM) to better understand the flood risk that the creek presented to the area. TRUE Engineering was hired to further understand this risk and produce flood risk maps;
- In November 2023, the province announced the new Provincial Emergency and Disaster Management Act (EDMA) that requires that local governments not just react to emergencies, but actively work on mitigation;
- In January 2024 the town received the after action review for the Wolfcub Creek event from Red Dragon Consulting which recommended, among other things, that the town explore ways to mitigate risk along the creek;
- On March 11, 2024 council supported sending an application for $150,000 to UBCM for preliminary design and costing work to pursue this mitigation work;
- This design work was pursued by the town with the intention of applying for the March 2025 UBCM grant of $5 million for structural flood mitigation work;
- On June 18, the province announced a new unexpected funding program, the DRIF program, for which the town will now apply, despite the application deadline being six months earlier;
- After talks with the province and consultation with TRUE Engineering, the town supported applying for the DRIF stream, even though the design work is not yet completed.
The freshet that occurred in May 2023 overwhelmed creeks in the area, including Wolf Cub Creek which overflowed into people’s yards and at least one basement.
Adam Goodwin, project coordinator for the town explained that “looking at the minimum flood models from an emergency management perspective, we want to make sure this continues to be a priority. And if we have a funding source that would potentially fund 100 per cent of it, I think it’s important to take advantage of that.”
Councillor Aimee Grice did question whether it put the town at a disadvantage applying for this grant money before all the design work is completed.
Goodwin explained that he does not think so because the initial application to the province requires only a dollar amount and a “high level overview” of the project.
He further explained that the town anticipates if they get past the first round, the province would ask for more detailed plans sometime early in 2025 and by this time the design work should be completed.
If the plans for the project end up with an estimate of more than $5 million, the town can subsequently apply for the March 2025 UBCM mitigation funding program for further funding.
