Quote:
Originally Posted by Slava
Thanks for your reply, I do appreciate it!
The issue for me isn't so much where the money will be spent in the longer term. I still have my doubts about the city being out $750M or more, even though that number has been bandied about. That might well be the total cost of the flooding, but like I say much of this will be insured, and then we have provincial and federal commitments which should cover the vast, vast majority of the final tally.
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Not saying you are wrong, this very well could be the case, but I advise caution in this line of thinking. An old saying is "Don't count you chickens till they hatch." (Sorry to go all Rick Bell there).
Point is, looking at my situation insurance covers up to $100K on sewer backups, what if I had $200K damage? I am then out of pocket for that part. Then the province said at the start "We want to put things back to the way they were". Now they are saying "We will put things back to basic function" (Which that is even debatable, but I digress)
I haven't heard a peep from Commander Harper in his sweet bomber since he staged his photo op.
Then look at the last guys to go through a disaster like this. Slave Lake is telling us to keep some money saved because, like the residents, the province and fed money wasn't as sweet as first indicated and announced.
So to figure all these guys will come in (insurance, province, feds) is a bit of a hail Mary in my opinion. Most likely insurance will cover a moderate amount. Then the Province will come in and offer a minimal amount to re-linoleum old city hall. The Feds, who knows? Harper ain't worried about losing any seats in this area, no need to pander like Quebec.
So coming from someone having to deal with these gov't guys myself, I can see why Nenshi is playing safe.
Besides, any money left over after insurance, prov, feds and this money should go right to mitigation. Trust me that one will be one very expensive beast to solve, but one we need to do or we will need to keep paying to fix things again and again in the future.