Christy Clark earmarks $65M for flood mitigation, asks for more federal money

B.C.'s premier says $65 million has been earmarked to deal with flood mitigation in the province, which she says is the biggest amount ever spent in B.C.

The announcement came as Christy Clark toured flood-ravaged parts of northeastern B.C. on Sunday. Clarksaid that more needs to be done in preparationfor extreme weather, which she says is part of climate change.

"Really we have to,across Canada, get used to the fact that weather events are getting more extreme, climate change is having a big impactand so we have to adapt," she said while also calling on the federal government to contribute more money.

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Flood warnings for communities in northeastern B.C. have beendowngraded as water levels recede. More than100 millimetres of rain hit the Peace River Region last week, causingflooding that destroyed roads, bridges and homes in several
communities including Dawson Creek and Chetwynd.

The province has issued disaster financial assistance to helphomeowners, residential tenants, small businesses, charities andlocal government clean up and repair damages in the aftermath.

Although conditions are improving, the BC River Forecast Centresays residents should continue to avoid waterways and potentiallyunstable riverbanks.

More than 400 properties were impactedand half of those were cut off by floodwaters.

Reg Whiten's property survived the flooding but just barely as access to his home was washed out.

"I had a bridge here, a beautiful steel bridge," he said. "It was railway steel that it was built on [but it] didn't last after the major events here the last few days. Alot of the water was actually coming off some of the neighbouring cliffs which is unheard of in anybody's living memories."

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Clark says reconstruction work in the area will haveto be done to higher standards with help from the federal government.

"Mitigation is better before the fact than trying to fix it after a bridge falls down," she said adding that the last time she was in B.C.'s Peace region a month ago, the area was facing massive wildfires.

"So the previous federal government raised the threshold for eligibility, they've reduced the amount of money available overall, so they need to fix both those things, and I would argue what we need is more money before the floods and before the fires happen so that the cleanup and the impact is lessened."