Overland flooding in Hanover in April, 2011

The Rural Municipality of Hanover has applied for provincial funding under the Excess Moisture Economic Stimulus Program. The purpose of the program is to provide economic stimulus to communities, industry sectors, and small and medium-sized enterprises affected by excess moisture in 2011.
   
Reeve Stan Toews says the program is capped at $100,000 for any single recipient. Funding cannot be used on solid infrastructure, otherwise Hanover council would have considered using the funding on road upgrades. "Council questioned that all along," says Reeve Toews. "But we don't make the rules on these grants."

Funding is available for things like business community promotions. Reeve Toews says "we applied for our part of it and if we get funding, we proposed to put up these electronic signs for our communities whereby you can do some adverstising and post community events and so on."

As for the connection between excess moisture and community signs, Reeve Toews says "because it was so wet, business maybe lost some revenue and so if you do some more advertising maybe you can regain some revenue. That's the theory behind it."

The first intake for applications was July 15th. Earlier this week, Reeve Toews said "we'll have our application ready. We don't know what happens after that."

Monthly intake deadlines are the 15th of each month and the program will conclude no later than March 2013.

The province has stated it plans to notify successful applications within thirty days of application deadlines.