The City of North Battleford held its special council meeting via Zoom Thursday. (Angela Brown/battlefordsNOW Staff)

By Angela Brown

Seeking support

City to apply for disaster assistance eligibility for storm damages

Jul 9, 2020 | 3:20 PM

Residents needing additional help to cover their property damages following this week’s rain and wind storms may see some relief.

The City of North Battleford hopes the province will provide some support through the Provincial Disaster Assistance Program (PDAP).

“With all the heavy rains over the last two days we know that a lot of property owners are dealing with a lot of damage,” Mayor Ryan Bater said. “We thought that the PDAP may be able to assist some people with the costs of that damage.”

Council had a special meeting Thursday via Zoom to discuss the situation.

They passed a resolution to apply to the Saskatchewan Ministry of Government Relations to be designated as an eligible assistance area under the Provincial Disaster Assistance Program.

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The program is designed for property owners to access potential assistance from the provincial government.

“In order for that to even be considered, the city has to be designated as an eligible assistance area,” Bater said. “Today we simply applied to the province to be designated as such. So this is the beginning of the process. It is now up to the province to decide whether they will grant us that status.”

If the municipality is approved for the eligibility designation, the city and property owners affected will be able to submit their claims to request assistance to the province directly.

Bater said he is aware some residents and businesses as well as some city facilities incurred damages from the storms on July 7 and 8, which saw roughly between 4.5 inches to six inches of rainfall in various parts of the city.

The mayor said it is “out of the ordinary” to receive this much rain in such a short period of time.

Bater said the PDAP program essentially acts as an insurance of a last resort.

“Individuals are encouraged to seek their insurance providers,” he added. “But the PDAP program does exist, and we thought there may be people who want to access it.”

The city is also trying to track the amount of damage that has occurred, so it is asking property owners — residents and businesses — who experienced damages from the storms to contact city hall to report it.

“We are tracking all the damage, and we want to have as much accurate information as possible,” Bater said. “We have been receiving calls from residents. We are encouraging others if they haven’t called as yet to let us know.”

City Manager Randy Patrick said the PDAP may be able to assist residents who either don’t have the appropriate insurance coverage or enough coverage as compensation for the cost of damages they incurred.

For the city, the Community Safety Officers’ building in particular received some damage from leakage on the main floor due to the heavy rains. But the main reason the city hopes to be eligible for assistance is to help general property owners’ benefit from the program where possible.

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angela.brown@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @battlefordsNOW