The mayor and council of Penticton, BC have voted to submit an application requesting for grant funding from both the provincial and federal governments – funding which will be used to pay for flood mitigation projects in the region.
The officials opened a joint grant intake for the Adaption Resilience and Disaster Mitigation projects. Specifically, officials are requesting some $3.8 million to improve upon the aging infrastructure surrounding the nearby Penticton Creek. Said infrastructure is so old, that some parts are at higher risk of breaching.
Projects eligible for the grant must begin construction prior to September 30, 2021, and must be completed by December 31, 2021. The cost-sharing grant will see the federal government provide 80% for the cost of disaster mitigation funding projects, and the provincial government funding for the remaining 20%.
City officials met last week to discuss the city’s flood mitigation plans, Global News reported.
During the special council meeting, it was discussed that the last time the creek was extensively modified was in the late 1940s and 1950s to protect the city from flooding. The protection work at the time involved the elimination of floodplains and the creation of a single channel.
It was much later in 2017 that Penticton developed a master plan for the creek. That plan identified a list of projects to prioritize, which includes a risk rating for flood mitigation based on potential failures of the infrastructure.
Two areas of the creek rated high in terms of requiring flood mitigation work, the council heard during the meeting. One of these requires emergency action before snowmelt begins to raise the creek’s water level.
