This Could Be The Last Year For Free Sandbags In Quispamsis

Some Quispamsis councillors are questioning why the town is giving free sandbags to residents during the spring freshet.

Council narrowly approved the purchase of 12,000 sandbags for $45,000 plus HST at Tuesday’s meeting.

The vote followed a lengthy debate among council members which lasted for nearly 30 minutes.

Coun. Sean Luck said if the town is buying sandbags, they should be charging residents who want them.

“When lightning hits my house or the snow goes in through the window, I don’t call the town to help with that disaster, so I’m just wondering how often we’re going to do this, how long we’re going to continue,” said Luck.

During the 2019 spring freshet, the town set up a sandbag station at the qplex, where city staff and volunteers filled the bags. But that is not possible this year due to the physical distancing requirements related to COVID-19, so the town is ordering pre-filled sandbags.

Susan Deuville, the town’s chief administrative officer, said she does not believe it is the town’s responsibility to protect private property, but that view is not shared by provincial emergency officials.

“The answer that I get back from NBEMO is that it is a municipal responsibility, in the case of an emergency, to be able to provide services to homeowners when they can no longer provide those services for themselves,” said Deuville.

Deuville said the 12,000 sandbags, combined with 3,500 sandbags leftover from last year, should meet the anticipated demand this year.

As for how the town was able to predict that, Deuville said they collected information on every property which took sandbags from the town during last year’s freshet.

“We then cross-referenced those addresses against anybody who took a WAWA (watercourse and wetland alteration) permit out, which would have meant building a seawall or something of that nature that would help that wouldn’t require sandbags this year, and subtracted that number off, as well as the numbers that we used for the municipal beach house,” said Deuville.

“We’ve really tried to whittle down the number to what we believe is actually necessary based on our historical data, as well as the data that we’re asking for people in our municipality to fill out so we know what they’re looking for.”

Despite the general opposition to free sandbags, most councillors felt it was too late to consider changing the rules for this year’s spring freshet.

Deputy Mayor Libby O’Hara said she will support offering free sandbags this year, but not in the future.

“I do not believe it’s the responsibility of council or the town of Quispamsis to shore up homes to ensure that they are not flooded, particularly if it’s year after year after year,” said O’Hara.

“We have a very short window right now before freshet season, and again we’re in the middle of the pandemic. I don’t like the costs, I don’t like the fact that we are providing this service, but I will go along with it this year.”

Council voted 4-3 in favour of the spending request, with councillors Sean Luck, Emil Olsen and Pierre Rioux voting against it.