Cache Creek looking at flood recovery costs of $5 to $7 million

Cache Creek flowing over the culvert at Quartz Road in May 2023. Restoring a crossing at Quartz Road is one of 25 projects identified in the village’s Flood Recovery Plan, but what that will look like — and the cost — has yet to be determined. (Photo credit: Barbara Roden)

Village’s flood recovery plan includes 25 projects that will take ‘multiple years’ to complete

The Village of Cache Creek has come up with a list of 25 projects related to recovering from this year’s flooding, with a projected total cost in the range of $5 to $7 million dollars and several projects taking multiple years to complete.

That was the message at a special meeting of council held on Aug. 28 to consider the items laid out in the village’s Flood Recovery Plan, which was prepared by TRUE Consulting. The projects range from the relatively small (removing sediment from the village’s wastewater treatment tanks; projected cost $7,500) to the major (reconstructing the Quartz Road crossing over Cache Creek; cost to be determined).

Cache Creek CAO Damian Couture explained that all but three of the projects (Quartz Road, a new wastewater treatment plant outfall, and dealing with an exposed sewer line in the Bonaparte River) have been costed out, but warned that these costs could change between now and the time that projects are substantially completed. The total price tag for the costed projects is $2,787,400; if they are deemed eligible for provincial Disaster Financial Assistance (DFA), the village’s portion is 10 per cent of the cost, or $278,740.

Couture said that the village cannot assume that the province will pay for any given project, and explained that in order to be eligible for DFA funding, projects must first be enumerated in a recovery plan that is submitted to the province. Once council has determined priorities, each project must then be “proofed out” to show what the condition was before the flooding, how it was affected by the flood, and what the cost is to replace/restore it to its pre-flood state or condition.

“We have to prove it was all working, and it’s a very lengthy process, which is why it’s important to have this prioritized,” he said. “The bigger the dollar amount, the more proof is needed. Every single one of these [projects] requires multiple days of staff time and multi-page reports.

“DFA covers the direct replacement cost only. A good example is the Quartz Road culvert. If the community decides we don’t want another culvert, we will be on the hook for the difference. If we decide we want a bridge for $2 million and culvert replacement is $1 million, we pay $1.1 million. The only exception is if we cannot legally build back as before; DFA will then pay a proportion of the minimum legal requirement, which adds another layer of complexity.”

Noting the concerns of residents who feel “nothing is being done”, Couture stressed that until each project is approved by the province, the village cannot move ahead with it, unless it wants to pay 100 per cent of the costs. “If we just go ahead and do it and pay for it before the province has said yes, the village is on the hook for the entire amount with no reimbursement.”

He added that a further complication is that even after projects are approved for DFA, the village must pay 100 per cent of the cost up front, then submit receipts for the completed project to Victoria, which can take four to six months to reimburse the village’s 90 per cent of the cost.

CFO Cristina Martini said that the village does have funds in savings that it can pull out of investments to use, but added that they don’t like to do that, as it means the funds are not in the bank collecting interest. The village also has Canada Community-Building Fund monies it could use for eligible projects, and the Landfill Legacy Fund could be used if needed. At any given time, she noted, the village would need a buffer of about $500,000 in order to pay out for projects while waiting for reimbursement from the province.

”Our portion [of the costs], even at 10 per cent, is big for a community of our size,” said Couture. “Just as it is, it’s $2.8 million in damage, which doesn’t include big projects like Quartz Road. We have funds we can use so we don’t see huge tax increases next year, but it means those funds will be used for repairs instead of doing nice new things.”

Couture asked that council pass a motion indicating which projects were critical, high, medium, and low priority, which was done. A second motion was passed approving the project costs as stated, with an additional margin of 20 per cent in order to prevent projects having to come back for re-approval if costs ended up being slightly higher than estimated.

A total of 11 projects were deemed critical, including two for which approval has already been obtained. Among the other nine were repairing the road on either side of the Todd Road bridge; replacing damaged sidewalk sections; cleaning up the remains of a storage trailer and its debris from the Bonaparte River; and removing debris and sweeping the village.

There was considerable discussion around prioritizing projects which affect the overall “look” of the community. Coun. Sue Peters said that there has been a lot of discussion around what the downtown looks like, but noted that a number of impacted sites are private property and thus outside the village’s control. Mayor John Ranta said he hoped that there would be a priority placed on undertaking “visible” projects: “I’m hearing from the public about the lack of work [being done].”

“When people live in a place with constant reminders of a disaster, just the simple act of tidying up debris would help the mental health of residents,” said Coun. Carmen Ranta. “[These projects] should fall under critical. It’s something I hear about all the time, and it’s high on the priority list of a lot of individual citizens. They don’t see the drainage pit at the Community Hall, but they see this damage every day.”

Dealing with the culvert at Quartz Road was also on the critical list, although Couture said that project needed a separate discussion.

“It’s a critical component, but it’s hard to put a price on it until we know what people want to see, and it’s hard for council to make that determination until we know what the choices are. We received a grant about two weeks before the flooding to do a study to look at what is good/better/best there, and the plan is to bring it to the public.

“DFA will only fund 90 per cent of the lowest cost legal option, so can a culvert safely carry that amount of water? We need an engineer who is qualified to say that.”

Mayor Ranta said that in his opinion, putting another culvert under Quartz Road would be a “massive waste of money” as the culvert continues to plug up. “We need to look at applying pressure on the province to fund a better solution.”

Martini noted that the whole Cache Creek corridor — which involves multiple landowners and levels of federal and provincial government — needs to be dealt with, as it is much more complicated than just the culvert. Couture added that staff are spending two to six hours a week in meetings about the corridor and what needs to be done.

The six high priority items included repairing damaged asphalt, replacing damaged irrigation lines, and removing debris from the Gateway (Cariboo Sam) Park and the nearby park space beside the fire hall, and replacing the pathway surfaces in both. Three projects — including re-routing the Bonaparte River to its previous course near the wastewater treatment plant outfall, budgeted at $1,128,300 — were classed as medium priority, and five projects were deemed low priority, including removing and replacing the concrete on the fire hall apron and removing debris from the damaged portion of the community hall parking lot behind the fire hall and replacing it.

The village has recently hired a recovery manager, and Couture said that they will be communicating weekly with residents, via a variety of channels, about recovery plans and progress, including when boots are on the ground and what each project’s projected completion date is. Council will also receive a report at each council meeting about the status of every project.

“Twenty-five projects in a recovery plan is big,” said Couture. “The whole thing, start to finish, is a multi-year process. Even some of the smaller projects could take a year or two.

“I hope some of the things that are visible to people are easy to proof out, and hope they will be quicker than some of the other stuff, because getting the visual aspect of the village back should be quicker than some of the infrastructure projects. The exception is the Quartz Road culvert, which has so many interconnected parts.

“The full final solution to get everything where it needs to be will be a mega-project, and take multiple years to complete.”

A list of the projects in the Cache Creek Flood Recovery Plan can be found in the agenda for the July 2023 council meeting, which can be viewed at https://cachecreek.ca/agendas.

Cache Creek

Be Among The First To Know

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

A link has been emailed to you - check your inbox.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

A link has been emailed to you - check your inbox.

Blog

Cache Creek looking at flood recovery costs of $5 to $7 million