Debts go unpaid as Manitoba flood evacuees from 2011 remain displaced

Let’s all hope for the sake of potential Manitoba flood victims that this year’s spring overflow is manageable and, say, doesn’t require the government to evacuate anyone.

Revelations are leaking out of Manitoba that a government agency has been tardy in paying their flood-related debts from two years ago as another, possibly major, flood looms in the months ahead.

CBC News reports that hotel bills for about 2,000 people displaced by the 2011 flood in northern Manitoba have yet to be paid, leaving six hotels and a restaurant missing about $3 million of money promised to them for assisting evacuees.

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Mike Bruneau, owner Misty Lake Lodge, told the network he is personally owed almost $2 million for housing evacuees from the devastating flood. Two years later, the northern Manitoba resort remains filled with those displaced by the disaster. A note on its website says the lodge is "currently not taking reservations."

The bills were supposed to be paid by the Manitoba Association of Native Firefighters (MANFF), an agency under Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada. The Winnipeg Free Press has been told the group has already received the funds from Manitoba’s Emergency Measures Organization.

So we have the problems of past floods still pouring over, pardon the phrasing, and all the while the province in preparing to battle another one in the coming months.

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Yahoo! Canada News columnist Scott Sutherland reported last week that southern Manitoba is preparing for "moderate to major flooding" caused by large quantities of snow and a delayed melt. Nothing in the range of the 2011 disaster is expected. Which is very good news, considering the cleanup for that mess is still underway.

Mike Bruneau, meantime, deserves a medal. He has essentially shut down his resort and cancelled lucrative private events in order to run a public housing unit. With no one covering the bills for two years.

The question is, if there are evacuees from this year’s flood, where will they go? Who will risk taking them in?