Emergency dike along the Coldwater River in Merritt (Image Credit: CFJC Today)

By James Peters

Two & Out

PETERS: A torrent of blame to go around after Merritt dike report

Sep 15, 2023 | 11:29 AM

NEXT WEEK’S UBCM CONFERENCE IN VANCOUVER should be an interesting one for our local communities.

On one hand, there is the Kamloops crew who will leave the big top and take the circus on the road.

Then there are places that just suffered severe fire damage, like the North Shuswap and West Kelowna. Those local officials will be very anxious to know how their provincial counterparts will be stepping up to the plate to help them recover.

While that’s happening, Lytton’s mayor and council will be wondering exactly what they have to do to get the same kind of attention.

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I’m sure Lytton wasn’t exactly jazzed to hear Premier David Eby earlier this week when he said rebuilding Scotch Creek would be a lot easier and quicker than Lytton.

The most awkward interactions, though, may be between the province and council from Merritt.

Earlier this week, a damning new report was released about the state of the dike system in Merritt prior to the atmospheric river hitting the Interior in November of 2021.

The report said an engineer repeatedly warned both city and provincial officials about significant problems with the dikes.

Report author Ben Parfitt said his digging couldn’t uncover any significant action that was taken in response to those warnings.

That remarkable weather system led to floods that caused more than $150 million in damage in the city.

Because of the enormity of this particular weather event, there is no way to know if it would have overwhelmed even a dike system with no identified problems.

But the fact that they were compromised before the atmospheric river descended upon Merritt guaranteed there would be severe damage.

Both local and provincial authorities have egg on their faces here.

While it is indeed up to local governments to do upkeep on local infrastructure like dikes, there is no way a community the size of Merritt would be able to pay for the type of repairs that were needed on these ones.

The city needed to raise the kind of alarms that would get the province to bring out the chequebook.

At next week’s UBCM meetings, a new set of dikes might be needed to hold back the torrent of blame being passed around.

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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 Pattison Media.