EDMONTON – It has been 14 weeks since the Heart River slipped into the town of Peace River and flooded Helen Hodgkinson’s two-story rooming house and ruined her business.
It still isn’t clear if the 77-year-old business person will reopen.
A water main break a week before the flood forced her tenants to move out. Then the entire downtown flooded. Officials said she isn’t eligible for assistance because there was no one at the Log Inn rooming house at the time of the flood.
“I lost my savings in that. I can’t redo it all over again,” Hodgkinson told a news conference.
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A day later, the federal government rejected a provincial request for special disaster relief funding to help businesses whose losses were above the $100,000 cap or ineligible because they had other sources of income.
The federal government said while damage done to the 65 businesses in the town was significant, it wasn’t of the same financial magnitude as the Edmonton tornado, Manitoba’s Red River flood or the flood last year in Saguenay, Que., the only times the federal government has made exceptions to its disaster program.
“Our concern is this is not on the same damaging level. It’s not the same exceptional circumstances,” said Gary Webster, with the federal Western Economic Diversification in Edmonton.
“We’ve decided not to provide any additional funding,” he said.
Alberta transportation minister Walter Paszkowski said he was disappointed by the federal decision.
