Flood Update April 26

On April 26, I spoke in response to a Ministerial statement on Flooding. My comments are below.

Mr. Gerrard: Madam Speaker, the sun is out today, which is a good thing after several days of wet and snowy weather. With today's clear skies, we're in a better position to have a look at what's happened, to assess the damage and to plan for the days ahead.

I had hoped that the government would've provided the best and worst projections of the likelihood of flooding in the next two weeks, with many days of projected rain ahead. We need to be prepared for what could be the worst and make sure that people are ready.

I'd hoped for a more detailed accounting of what's happened with the hydro outages. I gather from the Hydro website today that there's still more than 3,000 people who are out of hydro service, and hope that that can be restored soon.

We don't really know how many basements have been flooded. That could have been helpful. But, certainly, in view of the serious problems of basement flooding in part of Manitoba, I would ask the government to look at restoring the basement flooding protection program, which has been so important and useful in the past.

I want to thank all those who are helping to address issues which have arisen from the flooding and the weather that we've received in the last few days, and to thank them sincerely for all that they're doing. It takes a province when we've got a weather storm like this.

Thank you, Madam Speaker.

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