Flood repairs in limbo as Woodlands County awaits approvals, advocacy for expedience on the go

By Serena Lapointe
Woodlands County is seeking answers from the province on projects linked to the Government’s
Disaster Recovery Program (DRP) specific to the 2023 flooding, and subsequent riverbank
damage along the McLeod River. The county is hoping to convince the government to expedite
the review of required regulatory approvals, so the work can begin.
During the March 12 Woodlands County Council meeting, CAO Matthew Ferris explained that
through the first half of 2025, administration worked hard on attaining changes to what had been
approved for projects along the bank of the McLeod River, and though it ended up being
successful, it ate up significant time, and timelines are now getting tight.
“We spent the last year collaborating with the province to come up with a process to make sure
the repair work we do reflected what our community needed. The province is quite sticklers on;
you get what you had. You can’t oversize or upgrade it beyond that when it comes to the
funding,” said Ferris.
“We did a lot of advocacy over the first six months of last year to get them to understand the
true scope because the original scope they gave us was significantly smaller. We then spent the
next six months building the engineering packages and tender packages to get that to go out.
With that, though, comes a bunch of provincial and federal approvals.”
Woodlands County is awaiting approval on four important pieces of the overall project, and they
can’t move until they have them. They submitted their Request for Review to the Department of
Fisheries and Oceans in mid-December 2025, the Temporary Field Authorization in early
January 2026, the Historical Resource Clearance on January 19, 2026, and the Water Act
Approval in early February 2026. And so far, they haven’t heard back.
The County may also need to put in for a Species at Risk Act (SARA) permit, a process that can
be lengthy. Typical approval time is anywhere from three to six months, depending on the level
of review a project requires. “Administration has responded to all clarification requests and
continues to work with regulators; however, approval timelines remain uncertain,” he added.
While Ferris understands that things take time, the deadline for work within the 2023 DRP
funding, which the County’s projects fall under, is coming up at the end of November. Time is of

the essence. “We recognize and understand, as administrators ourselves, how things take time
and process, and we respect that within reason. But, with the timelines we have coming up in
the fall of 2026, that is a problem when it comes to tendering.”
He said not having the approvals means Woodlands County cannot tender the projects due to
the liability and legal risk of tendering out a project, for which they may not receive approval to
follow through on. Since the province’s funding is footing a significant portion of the bill, not
having approval could mean Woodlands County would be on the hook for the costs incurred.
“Also, the added costs of the potential last-minute scope changes very late into the year will only
add to the increased costs, and that’s problematic,” added Ferris.

Administration’s request was to have council join the conversation by reaching out to those who
could help speed things up. “If council thought it necessary, perhaps we start the advocacy. You
all have a lot of great connections and interplay both provincially and federally, and using the
force of council as a whole to help us get further ahead based on the public good and the need
of these projects as a governance body,” said Ferris.
He suggested that they send letters to local MLAs, relevant Provincial Ministers, the area’s MP,
and relevant Federal Ministers, all of whom are related to the different applications they’ve sent
in, in the hopes that they can be expedited. Reeve Kusch said they should also send emails,
and Councillor St. Martin recommended phone calls be done as well.
Councillor Alan Deane said the deadlines attached to DRP funding are different than other
forms of funding, something that should also be brought up through the advocacy. “When you
repave a section of road, and you apply for funding, it falls in a different bucket, but they don’t
have these types of restrictions. And we’re dealing with the river. I would hope that Municipal
Affairs understands that there’s a difference between this type of application and a regular
funding request that doesn’t have the same restrictive things.”
Councillor Patricia MacNeil said she was concerned about the possibility of not getting projects
completed in time and losing out on the funding entirely. “I’m super concerned about losing 1.6
million dollars in funding for a project that we can’t afford to do on our own. So, hopefully, we will
be able to successfully advocate and not lose it before the November 26 deadline.” Woodlands

County Council unanimously voted to begin advocating for expedience, in hopes of hearing
back sooner rather than later.