Skip to content

A courageous flood plan

Public service is not for the faint of heart.The governments that we sometimes love to flay make decisions daily, affecting the lives of thousands of citizens, for better or worse.

Public service is not for the faint of heart.

The governments that we sometimes love to flay make decisions daily, affecting the lives of thousands of citizens, for better or worse.

They always do so with incomplete information, often on short notice.

Their decision making and its consequences are widely reported and second-guessed by media outlets and taxpayers who fund their wages.

Those pay packets are always smaller than they would be for managers with similar workloads and responsibilities in big business.

There are never any stock-purchase options, happy shareholders or business books chronicling their outstanding achievements.

Public servants can expect a steady stream of complaints when the snow falls, as it does every winter, and is not picked up soon enough for some taxpayers’ tastes.

They can count on more complaints about runaway spending if they raise taxes to enhance snow removal.

In certain parts of Canada, the greatest challenges come every spring when the snow melts and fills the dikes and rivers to overflowing.

In Manitoba, the constant epicentre of Canadian spring riverbank breaches, it’s far worse than normal. Water flow on the Assiniboine River is said to be creating a one-in-300-year flood.

It’s uncertain how analysts can determine that fact, given the sparse population and absence of record keeping in Manitoba three centuries ago.

What’s certain now is that a late snowstorm and continuing rain have made it worse than any living Manitoban can remember.

Water levels have risen so high that the provincial government has created a plan to divert the Assiniboine River and deliberately flood 150 properties in order to protect three to four times that number from a similar fate.

That decision was made with enormous courage, after careful consideration.

The plan involves bulldozing dirt and gravel to divert Assiniboine River water into an oxbow, which used to be the riverbed centuries ago. Water funneled into that oxbow will then be directed into the La Salle River, away from the Assiniboine.

On its way, it will flood farms, acreages, and businesses, including some of the best vegetable plots in Canada.

According to the plan, however, it will reduce or eliminate flooding at other properties in the Assiniboine Valley.

Spectators like us can barely comprehend the anger and frustration of farmers, landowners and businesses in the designated flood zone. Their homes and livelihoods will be destroyed or changed forever on the theory that far more properties will be spared a similar fate.

Why should the fate and security of other families be put above their own?

They know the answer is in the numbers: bigger numbers mean more political clout.

That’s not simply a matter of crass electoral math. It makes sense to sacrifice some to protect many more.

By specifically selecting the flood victims, the Manitoba government must also take on responsibility for minimizing and mitigating damages to those families and businesses.

The federal government is also on the hook. After flying over the area on Wednesday with Premier Greg Selinger, Prime Minister Stephen Harper endorsed the Manitoba plan.

As hard as the lives of families in that area will be in the months to come, that must offer some relief. They know that if governments scrapped the diversion plan and their land flooded anyway, they would be far worse off.

Private insurance companies offer no coverage for overland or seepage flooding.

The river diversion plan is bold, ambitious and defensible.

No doubt it will also bring unanticipated surprises. Big projects like this, rolled out on short notice, never follow the script.

As the flood waters flow downstream, we can anticipate criticism, second-guessing and lawsuits. That has become standard practice.

No matter how it turns out, the last thing hard-working politicians and civil servants tasked with minimizing disaster can expect is thanks from taxpayers.

Joe McLaughlin is the retired former managing editor of the Red Deer Advocate.