The RM of Cartier's taken a final look at recovery efforts from the 2014 flood. While they'd completed the work associated with the flood a few months ago, Council reviewed a final report on the event at this week's meeting. The report prepared by CAO Virginia Beckwith showed most of the damage was near the Assiniboine River in the Lido Plage area of the municipality, and the cost to restore all areas hit by the flood was about $733,000. While it's a significant cost, the municipality recovered 98.8 per cent of the cost through disaster financial assistance.

Reeve Dale Fossay notes the DFA process is quite lengthy and requires no shortage of paperwork for their staff. However, he notes after dealing with the the claims process in 2011, they were prepared to take on the piles of paperwork in 2014.

"We learned in 2011, and we have one staff member who's very diligent and tracks every expenditure. Good record keeping pays off in the end with a higher recovery rate."

He feels the current DFA system works well and says it's satisfying to know that support is there if they need it. However, Fossay says they hope this isn't something they'll need to tackle again anytime soon, and adds that's really led to an attitude of prevention and mitigation when it comes to flood events.

"I guess overall, having gone through two flood years in recent years, we're trying to go through with actions that are more preventative, and that's what the province is doing as well. Hopefully the homeowners themselves on their own properties will take preventative action."