Breezy Point buyouts being finalized

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This article was published 13/05/2009 (6202 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

THE Doer government will announce within two weeks which flood-affected properties in Breezy Point it is prepared to buy.

Steve Ashton, minister responsible for emergency measures, said the reason for the delay on announcing whether the government will buy out property owners had to do with which properties were found to be continually at risk to flooding.

Ashton said the province worked with the RM of St. Andrews to decide if it was worthwhile to construct berms or dikes for specific properties or if the properties should be bought out.

“The technical work has been done,” Ashton said. “There are pockets of properties in those areas that it doesn’t make sense (to protect) because they face flooding year after year,” Ashton said. “But if there are properties that suffered, say, $10,000 to $20,000 damage this year and they’ve never been flooded before, then maybe they don’t need to be bought out.”

Ashton said this may seem like an unnecessary long time to make a decision but he added following the 1997 flood the Filmon government took months before it decided which properties it would buy out.

The province will use the same formula to value property this time around as it did in 1997, Ashton said, adding property owners would be paid the going value of their home and land.

— Staff