THE BOAT LAUNCHES ARE OPENING UP up Friday (June 19).
And with that, the flood threat was nearly over.
The above normal snowpack we received last winter came down about as perfectly as we could have hoped.
The spring was wet but in a slow drizzle as opposed to a series of storms with heavy downpours.
Soon, the flood measures will come down too and we’ll be able to enjoy our parks and rivers and lakes as we normally would.
It’s a rosy picture for everyone but those who live at Stump Lake, where there is no such optimism.
This a tight-knit community living beside a lake that has gone from serene and idyllic to a monster threatening to swallow buildings whole.
Year after year, the lake rises, and those who built or bought hundreds of metres from the shore find their homes at grave risk.
The natural outflow from the lake was blocked 100 years ago, probably by someone who didn’t want a creek flowing through their property.
Dam the lake, damn the consequences.
A century later, those in charge of making decisions worry that freeing up that outflow would cause more problems further downstream.
Image Credit: CFJC TodayOf course, it should never have come to this point.
It should never have reached the point where government has to think about potentially sacrificing one community to save another.
The TNRD warns that any potential long-term solution will take years and multiple levels of government to have approved.
This however, is a moment in time when it would be better to ask forgiveness than to ask permission.
While the community may have been worried about drowning in a deluge of red tape before, the deluge is far more literal now.
It’s the provincial government that should take control, enact the least damaging short-term solution immediately, and get to work on the permanent solution once these residents’ properties are safe.
This is a time for leadership and for action. A community depends on it.
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Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or the Jim Pattison Broadcast Group.
