TRURO - Those expecting immediate solutions to Colchester County's flooding woes are going to need patience, Darrell Dexter says.
Nova Scotia's premier made the comments Monday at Bible Hill Central Elementary, during a media scrum following an announcement for a new school in Bible Hill.
Dexter said it's going to take time to find effective solutions to a problem as old as time for Colchester residents.
"I know for people in Truro, if you went through one of the floods that took place in the last little while, you'd like to be able to see results yesterday," Dexter said. "But that is not going to happen. These are long-term problems that have been built over many years and they're not going to be turned back in a few months."
Although Colchester residents have been dealing with flooding since the area was settled hundreds of years ago, the issue came to a head in September when the area was drenched with a record 386.8mm of rain, about nine times more than Sept. 2011. The result was a breaching of several area berms that caused a pair of major floods just two weeks apart.
The floods rivaled any Truro had seen before and residents of several neighbourhoods were evacuated from their homes. More that $1 million in damage was caused.
Dexter said it's going to take a joint effort between the province and municipalities to tackle the issue effectively with the province taking a leading role in the process.
"I just don't think any of the municipalities actually have the kind of wherewithal to do it without putting an extraordinary burden on their citizens," Dexter said. "So that means there's going to have to be a partnership in order to get it done."
The initiative is being implemented across the province, but Dexter said Truro is the perfect place to start.
"Because I think it is the most profound example of where we're seeing these kinds of changes (in the weather) have effects on the lives of everyday people."
why would they think a permanent gate at park street , would fix the problem ,,, how much did that cost??