The town is sending staff to High River to help clean up and restore the flood-stricken southern Alberta community.
On July 8, town council agreed that Innisfail should help High River, which was one of the communities devastated by flooding last month.
Barry Baker, the town's director of operational services, told council he received an email from the provincial Municipal Affairs office seeking help.
“One of the critical emerging challenges is the sheer volume of work required, in some cases much more work than existing municipal staff can hope to keep up with,” said Paul Whittaker, Municipal Affairs deputy minister, in his email. “Premier Redford and Minister Doug Griffiths have asked me to contact all of you, to ask whether you might have the flexibility to share any of your staff with the affected municipalities on a short-term basis.”
Whittaker said the key areas of need were emergency operations centre staff, public utilities managers, general public works staff, waste and debris management workers and heavy equipment operators.
Baker told council that Olds was sending 10 staff members to help out flood stricken communities. He said three Town of Innisfail staff members were prepared to volunteer their services.
Council was told that while the municipalities are expected to still pay staff members their regular pay, the province would pick up the costs for accommodations, meals, mileage and overtime.
Baker said he is expecting each staff member who heads out to High River to volunteer his or her services for up to five days.
“It is our way of stepping up as a municipality,” said Baker. “I believe if it happened here in our town people would be most appreciative if other communities stepped up.”
