United Conservative Party critics are calling on the provincial government to immediately address disaster relief claims resulting from excessive rainfall that have caused significant damage to municipal infrastructure across rural Alberta.

Livingstone Macleod MLA Pat Stier says over 20 municipalities have put in claims and have yet to hear anything.

"Some of these municipalities, I believe there's 20 to 23 of them, That have put in their claims for a program to get some recovery out of this to help maintain the roads, replace culverts that have been washed out and so on and they haven't heard anything for months and months, I think even eight months was mentioned, and that, to me is absolutely ridiculous, if the Government can't get people out to look at these claims made by bona fide people that have been doing the inspections on behalf of municipalities in a timely manner then they ought to think of new way to rectify these problems," he says.

Stier says it's apparent the good work done by High River's Ad Hoc Disaster Relief Committee hasn't reached the Municipal Affairs or Transportation departments involved.

He says time is of the essence.

"Municipalities have construction season and plans this year and every year that they have to address certain problems, and adjacent landowners and people that are involved and washed out roads in the municipality are at stake and certainly with the amount of money that we're spending on transportation you would think they would devote some of this infrastructure money to maintaining and improving and fixing these damages," Stier says.

The local MLA says they need to get the work done before the construction season is over and the same problems come again next year.

 

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