The provincial government is improving compensation for flooded-out Manitobans — including paying property taxes for some of them — adding to a mounting flood-fighting bill that has already topped half a billion dollars.
Premier Greg Selinger announced a few changes to his government’s flood compensation program Monday, including raising the maximum amount for disaster assistance claims by up to $70,000 per property in some cases, and offering to pay the balance of this year’s municipal and school taxes for up to 3,800 people whose properties were damaged or destroyed by flooding.
Selinger said the cost of flood fighting, mitigation efforts and compensation for damage is now expected to be upwards of $550 million province wide for 2011’s flood. That figure doesn’t include a bailout package worth up to $194 million for the agricultural sector, which was announced last week.
Flood fighting, compensation and mitigation work — including more than $600 million spent expanding the Red River Floodway — totalled about $1 billion for the 1997 flood.
“There are extraordinary costs that come with extraordinary flooding,” Selinger said.
‘Extraordinary costs’
The government has already been running deficits for a couple of years, and the premier admitted a hit of several hundred million dollars is sure to cause some difficulty at budget time.
“There’s no question this was not in the plan, but you can’t make reality adapt to the plan,” Selinger said, pledging that the flood spending will not change his government’s pledge of getting out of deficit by 2014.
“Our commitment is to return to balance within the five-year plan and we’re not wavering from that commitment,” he said.
Selinger said the province will cover the pro-rated property taxes of some homeowners and cottagers from the time the flood hit the property in question until the end of 2011.
“The municipalities will tell us which properties they think deserve relief,” he said.
It’s expected those properties whose value has been affected by flooding will be eligible, according to government officials.
The province will pay the money directly to municipalities on behalf of the property owners, and expects the program to cost about $2.3 million.
The province will also be raising the ceiling for disaster financial assistance claims from $200,000 to $240,000 across Manitoba. For permanent homes in the Lake Manitoba area, the cap will rise from $200,000 to $270,000.
http://www.winnipegsun.com/2011/07/04/property-taxes-covered-for-3800-flooded-tobans
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