The Town of High Level Council recently met with MLA Dan Williams to speak about the millions of dollars still owed to the Town by the provincial government for the costs incurred by the Chuckegg Creek wildfire in 2019.
The Town was the regional response agency during the emergency, and cost the Town about $10 million in expenses sustained for protection and response for their community, Dene Tha’ First Nation, the Paddle Prairie Metis Settlement, and Mackenzie County.
At the time of the fire, the Office of the Fire Commissioner (which normally pays the costs of emergency response) was going through some changes and the process for dealing with the issue changed, which made all the costs fall on the Town.
The Disaster Recovery Program has paid the majority of the costs back but High Level is still sitting on $2.6 million in debt from the wildfire. Other costs have also added onto the debt with over $600,000 in interest payments and other fees in the two year waiting period.
“To our community, $2.6 million is huge,” – Mayor Crystal McAteer, speaking to Dan Williams, Peace River MLA, during Council’s regular meeting on Jan. 25, 2022
Williams said he would bring the issue to the minister personally and explained there’s an extensive amount of accounting involved. He also noted the issue is widespread among northern communities. “Paddle Prairie and Mackenzie County have brought this up. Northern Lights (County) brought this up with the Battle Complex fire that happened just before Chuckegg. I’m very happy to bring it up with the Minister personally to see if we can have the Emergency Management Agency see if they can keep it moving quickly.” said Williams.
You can watch this issue being discussed with MLA Williams between council, here.
-Erika Rolling, Trending 55 Newsroom
