The RM of La Broquerie council passed a resolution at their previous council meeting to ask for Disaster Financial Assistance (DFA) from the province to help pay for road maintenance.
Earlier this month, many municipalities in Manitoba participated in the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) conference in Calgary, Alberta.
CAO for the RM of La Broquerie, Andrew Glassco, says a variety of municipalities that attended the FCM conference are also facing difficulty with road maintenance this year.
“When they got together to have a conversation, many other communities are experiencing or experienced similar conditions to what we have with our roads in La Broquerie.”
Some of the other RMs discussing this issue were St. Andrews, St. Clements, Taché, Pinawa, Rosser, Reynolds, Alexander, Lac du Bonnet, Brokenhead, and Rockwood.
Glassco says in hopes of finding a solution for everyone, these RMs discussed going back to their communities to pass a resolution seeking assistance for disaster-related losses.
“When natural disaster strikes or creates an unreasonable financial burden, they can claim funding back from the provincial government.”
So as the RM of La Broquerie passed a resolution to ask for DFA, other municipalities plan to do the same.
Glassco explains the municipalities are submitting the resolutions to the Association of Manitoba Municipalities (AMM), and AMM will take it forward, most likely to the Minister.
Glassco explains the process in more detail.
“It first starts with a resolution of council, then there's a community impact assessment that has to be submitted, so we're compiling the data.”
He says the eligible expenses should equal the costs necessary to address the disaster, repairing infrastructure to its condition immediately before the disaster.
“So those expenses must be over and above what the municipality typically spends as part of its regular operating and maintenance budget.”
Tue, Jul 2, 1:45 PM
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