After the MD of Bonnyville footed the bill for a $560,000 repair to Lessard Bridge, they reached out to the province in search of disaster recovery assistance.
“The original application was probably within a few months of when it happened. It was originally refused, and we reapplied thinking the government wasn’t taking into full account what actually happened,” explained Reeve Greg Sawchuk.
In April 2018, Lessard Bridge was damaged by an ice dam that came down the river and took out the middle support pillar of the bridge.
For almost a year it was out of commission while the MD waited for approvals from Alberta Environment and fisheries.
Once they received the green light, the contractors got to work, finishing the repairs within a month of the approval.
The MD made the project a priority because of the number of residents impacted by the closure of the bridge.
“That had a lot to do with getting on it as quick as we could, because the way it is of course, anything having to do with water, you’re dealing with Alberta Environment and in this case, fisheries as well,” Sawchuk said.
During consuction, residents on the north side of the river heading to Bonnyville were forced to make a large detour.
While some drivers abided by the MD’s strict “keep off” policy, others drove around the barriers and utilized the bridge regardless of ongoing repairs.
Because of the unique circumstances, the municipality reached out to the province for disaster recovery assistance. If approved, the Alberta government would have covered the full cost of repairing the bridge.
“In our minds, it was an odd case and it was unlike anything we had seen… We had seen in other municipalities where ice had been taken into account, we thought we would give it a try, and it doesn’t cost anything to try,” noted Sawchuk.
According to CAO Luc Mercier, the MD received notice they’re application was denied in October 2018.
“We subsequently appealed that decision from the province just to see if they would reconsider based on what we anticipated was an anomaly in weather for that year in the ice build up.”
He continued, “We just got the final response from the province in July that said we were definitively denied because we didn’t meet the requirements of the provincial disaster recovery funding for municipalities.”
Sawchuk and Mercier agreed “it’s not something we would normally try to get provincial funding for,” but because of the nature of how it happened, they thought they would give it a shot.
“We also knew the province can’t fund everything for everybody,” said Mercier.