City announces expert panel

The City of Calgary's priority in recovering from last month's flooding remains those citizens whose homes and businesses were heavily impacted.

A special section has been created at calgary.ca/floodrecovery to give citizens the City information they need.

At the same time, The City is moving to establish an expert panel to review The City of Calgary’s flood response measures and mitigation efforts and to investigate ways of reducing and managing flood risks to Calgary in the future.

A wide-ranging process will be employed to examine, evaluate and prioritize environmental, infrastructure and policy measures that would significantly reduce the potential harm from floods.

“Calgary and Calgarians are amazingly resilient, but the floods also demonstrated that we can—and must—do more to manage future flood risks,” said Mayor Naheed Nenshi.

“Bringing together a panel of experts, including recommendations from Calgarians, will ensure we have the best information available to make good decisions and keep our city protected.”

Calgarians will be invited to contribute their recommendations and ideas to ensure no important improvement suggestions are left out of the evaluation process.

The City of Calgary will be working closely with the Province since many of the possible changes will require Provincial support and coordination of effort.

The City will be assembling a group of experts, experienced in a number of relevant fields, to develop recommendations in the coming months.

The panel will be chaired by Wolf Keller, former Director of Water Resources for The City of Calgary. Notices for citizen involvement will follow once further details are worked out.

A web site is being set up to collect citizen input and suggestions. Input received at the site will be catalogued and summarized for the panel once their work is underway.

The City is also working diligently with the provincial government to clarify roles and responsibilities around the provincial policy changes regarding disaster relief and development in flood hazard areas.

"We are working to understand the requirements from The City to properly support the Province's policy direction for building and rebuilding, " said Gordon Stewart, the City's Director of Recovery Operations.

"We are confirming that we have correct and complete information from the Province.”

Stewart said The City wants to help citizens access the right information, regarding policy directions, the impact of flooding and if their property is at risk for flooding in the future.

The City will be organizing a series of information meetings in affected communities beginning next week to facilitate this happening. Details will be available on at calgary.ca/flood recovery once they are finalized. The Province has indicated they will be working closely with City staff on this process.

Development and Building Approvals has prepared information for affected homeowners regarding The City’s role and permit process in repairs, rebuilding and demolition. The information is available at www.calgary.ca/floodrecovery.

One particular area of concern remains assisting those displaced by the flood in finding housing availability. As of the last update, 79 people are still being housed temporarily in post-secondary dorms.

Calgarians who have been displaced by the flood and who are in need of housing should call 3-1-1 and register.