Alberta flood recovery officials work to 'unstick' stalled claims

The teams working on flood mitigation in southern Alberta say they are working as fast as they can to process applications for disaster assistance funds.

People in the southwest Calgary community of Britannia got an update Thursday night from Andre Corbould, the assistant deputy minister of the flood recovery task force, and other officials.

He reported the province received 9,000 applications for help and about 10 per cent were withdrawn or ruled ineligible.

Officials have managed to make an initial home visit on about 7,000 of the remaining 8,000 applications, he said.

However, in many cases the applications have become stalled over concerns raised by insurance companies.

“So there's about ... 6,000 files where we're trying to unstick them either for insurance holds or all those things,” Corbould said.

“And what we're doing to unstick those is making 200 calls a day on specific files, working with the insurance companies to unstick those issues that are related to insurance.”

So far the government has issued 2,300 cheques, mostly for small amounts, he said.

Meanwhile, permits and reviews for major flood mitigation projects — including a series of berms in the mountains and foothills and an underground tunnel to divert water from the Glenmore Reservoir to the Bow River — are being fast-tracked, Corbould said.

The berms could be in place within seven to 12 months and the diversion project for Calgary could be done within two or three years, he said.

These projects, along with one in High River, are expected to cost more than $80 million.