Two years ago, businesspeople in Melita, Man., were preparing for the worst.
Heavy rainfall in May made it impossible for many local farmers to plant crops. Without the prospect of a harvest, they had less money to spend in their local community. Merchants soon felt the pinch.
The same year, former Progressive Conservative MLA Bob Rose led a committee to find out what could be done to help communities hardest hit by the excess moisture.
What became known as the Rose report was completed that summer. It included several recommendations on ways to help businesses in southwestern Manitoba, the region hardest hit by the 1999 flooding.
Read Also
Alberta crop diversification centres receive funding
$5.2 million of provincial funding pumped into crop diversity research centres
The report was never acted upon. Melita mayor Ken Carels suggests part of the reason was the timing of a provincial election that replaced the PCs with the NDP.
“The election came in the fall of 1999, the report got put on a shelf, and nothing happened with it.”
Carels had hoped the provincial and federal governments would help pay for the measures recommended in the Rose report.
A total of $8.5 million in aid had been recommended to provide merchants with things like interest-free loans and property tax deferral. Rose, who has since died, also advocated Employment Insurance support to help businesses keep their workers during the economic slowdown.
The Manitoba government blames Ottawa for refusing to cost-share a program to help affected businesses.
Agriculture minister Rosann Wowchuk has repeatedly said it would set a dangerous precedent if the province picked up the full cost of disaster relief programs that are supposed to be cost-shared with Ottawa.
But PC MLA Larry Maguire, whose constituency took the brunt of the excess moisture, accuses the province of passing the buck.
“Where did this disaster happen, in Ottawa or Manitoba?”
Maguire said he is certain businesses could have been saved in affected communities if Rose’s recommendations had been implemented.
“I don’t think (the NDP) are as supportive of rural Manitoba as the Conservatives were. Many of the ministers don’t even know where rural Manitoba is.”
Businesses that closed in Melita included a Ford dealership, a farm implement dealership, a hardware store and a small-engine repair shop.
Melita Chamber of Commerce president Daryl Van Cauwenberghe said dozens of people lost their jobs and left town.
“The last couple or three years have been hard ones,” Van Cauwenberghe said.
“We definitely need some economic development of some sort.”
But Melita is recovering from the spring of 1999, which saw more than a million acres of cropland go unseeded in southwestern Manitoba, and there have been some business developments.
“It’s not all gloom,” Carels said.
“We’re positive, aggressive and we’re surviving.”
