The province is aligning some of its flood safety standards in order to better coordinate with the federal government for flood assistance when tragedy strikes. To that end, a one-in-200-year flood standard will now apply to most residences in the province.
Leah Clark, the executive director of irrigation and economic development with the Water Security Agency (WSA), details what a one-in-200-year flood event is.
"Let's just maybe talk about the flood event itself. So it's the likelihood of a flood occurring. The one-in-200 flood event is a 0.5 per cent chance of a flood happening in any given year."
For comparison, the major flood event that Estevan faced back in 2011 would be considered a one-in-500-year event, with a 0.2 per cent chance of happening in any given year.
Clark says their main concern with these events is watching for what areas might be hit in any given year.
"Here at Water Security Agency, we support communities and municipalities with doing their flood mapping. What that does is it allows communities to have a map and see the likelihood of flood events occurring and different areas of potential risks or areas where they can potentially invest in some mitigation, like extra culverts and stuff like that."
"When we're talking about what houses might need to do to meet those standards, it really depends on a number of things. It depends on what that community has for local bylaws for that development and what they require for that development to take place. But what we see is a lot of fairly simple measures that can take place to floodproof buildings."
The regulatory changes will mean that local municipalities will look at their own on any new work needing to be done for existing areas, says Clark.
"What this regulatory change has done is that it has allowed municipalities to make some more decisions regarding the redevelopment of existing properties in the floodway. So it's really allowed those decisions to be made locally and has allowed some flexibility for that to happen where and when it makes sense and is done responsibly."
The actual standards houses need to meet for one of those floods can change thanks to a number of factors, says Clark.
"What we're recommending is that buildings be built at a one-in-200 flood event standard or higher, meaning elevation higher than that one-in-200 flood line, but that line changes depending on proximity to water, topography of the area, a bunch of different factors go into that."
Clark says that's why it's important the WSA puts work into doing flood risk assessments across the province.
Giving local municipalities input is also an important part of this change for the WSA.
"I think whenever we have a regulation that empowers local municipalities to make decisions that are right for their communities, it's taken positively. That's exactly what we've done with this regulation change. It's very pro-development. It's in line with the federal standards. It really just makes a lot of sense. And with regulation changes like that, they're always taken quite positively, and that's what we've seen."
With a one-in-200-year flood event baseline, that puts the province in alignment with the Federal Disaster Financial Assistance Arrangements, which Clark hopes will help people apply for funding in case of an emergency.
"What it does is it ensures that the province and the federal government are aligned, and it ensures that development is covered by that disaster funding in the case that a flooding event comes to this. So it really aligns us and ensures that we have some coverage."
Clark says the change as a whole is a positive one, and she's looking forward to seeing the province work with local municipalities to make their communities safer.