The Gull Lake Tornado

Wednesday morning this week, I visited Gull Lake to talk with people there about the tornado and its aftermath. George Harbottle, the Reeve of the R.M. of Alexander, was very helpful in showing we the situation on the ground. The tornado ripped through the campground knocking down many trees and badly damaging or destroying many of the trailers in the area.

During my time with George Harbottle, the Reeve of the R.M. of Alexander, he reviewed the province's approach to support of muncipalities at times of a disaster. One of the concerns he raised was this. When a municipality uses its own people and equipment to respond to a disaster, they can recover 16% of the cost through the Disaster Financial Assistance Program (DFA). When a municipality contracts work out to an outside contractor, it can recover 100% of the cost of the work. In some cases, it may be precisely the same type of work.The reason for providing only a portion of the costs when municipalities use their own people and equipment is because some of the people may be working in any event, and the equipment may be being used on other projects if not on the emergency and so they represent "fixed" costs for municipalities. The province says it does not want to cover municipalities "fixed" costs. But 16% of municipal costs is low. There must be a better and fairer way to address this.

Individuals at Gull Lake who were affected by the Tornado were either living in home which was a permanent residence, or living in a summer home. In at least one case, the "summer home" meant that the couple was living there seven months of the year.At the present time, financial assistance under the provincial Disaster Financial Assistance (DFA) Program is not provided equitably to these two groups of people - so that one family may receive financial compensation for their loss, which another next door in a similar dwelling, will not. The family in a permanent residence receives compensation; the family living in their summer home does not. It should be noted that property taxes and school taxes are paid by both groups of people in proportion to the value of their property. This is in stark contrast to the DFA approach to compensation which provides compensation to some but not others.The DFA program was developed some time ago. It is now time to rethink the approach being taken and look at ways in which people can be treated equitably when they face a disaster like a tornado.

For more on the Gull Lake Tornado see:

http://www.manitobaliberals.ca/2006/08/architecture-design-and-gull-lake.html

http://www.manitobaliberals.ca/2006/08/gull-lake-lessons-about-emergency.html