Setback for residents hoping to rebuild in Fort McMurray's Waterways

It's been a difficult year for Fort McMurray resident Shannon Rochelle. Flames chased her from her home in May eventually burning it to the ground, forcing the family with two children to live in an RV.

But things aren't getting better, she said. 

"The nightmare that has been occurring for us has been dealing with the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo," Rochelle said. 

• Flood-prone Fort McMurray community still can't rebuild
• Fort McMurray's Waterways subdivision given green light to rebuild

Residents of Fort McMurray's Waterways community are fuming after the cancellation of a meeting where they hoped the municipality would give them the green light to rebuild their homes destroyed in the wildfire.

A last minute email said the meeting scheduled for Thursday night was postponed.

Residents were hoping to hear an update about reconstruction in the subdivision, which the province considers a flood zone. 

May's wildfire ravaged most of the homes in the Fort McMurray subdivision, a mixture of mobile homes, trailers and multi-story structures.

Permitted to rebuild on floodplain

In October, after months of uncertainty about whether they would be permitted to rebuild on a floodplain, residents were told they could start applying for permits.

Eventually residents in the flood zone could rebuild as long as they signed waivers acknowledging they understood the risks, the municipality said.

Residents have been waiting to sign those waivers for two months. They were hoping to get more details about what was taking so long and hear more about alternatives such as land swaps or buyouts.

But the letter from the municipality says the buyout option may no longer be on the table.

Residents said they were surprised about the sudden cancellation of the meeting, and are upset some of the options to rebuilding may have been eliminated without consultation.

"The whole experience has left me really jaded with a bad taste in my mouth," Rochelle said.

"It's frustrating too it's like a constant let down. They say something is going to happen and then they turn you around the next minute and slap you in the face."

Buyouts ... not the municipality's idea

Asked for more details about the cancellation of the meeting, the municipality issued a press release late Thursday.

It said the Wood Buffalo Recovery Committee will recommend the municipality not buy out properties in the flood zone.

It didn't explain why purchasing properties were off the table, but it did say buyouts were originally not the municipality's idea and it wanted to develop Waterways in a financially-sensible way.

"The resident-proposed buyout was initially brought forward by some residents – it was not a proposal made by the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo," the email said.

"(The recovery committee) is committed and focused on facilitating the rebuild of the Waterways community in a fair and equitable manner that is fiscally responsible and considerate of the needs of the majority of residents."

The committee will also recommend to council next week that it should develop a "long-term flood-mitigation strategy."

The strategy aims to:

• Ensure residents in flood hazard areas are fully eligible for Disaster Recovery Program funding for future floods.
• Develop "encumbrances" or a waivers attached to residents land titles saying they understand the risk.

The municipality said it's also rescheduling its meeting with residents to Dec. 15.  

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