It's a new year, but some old challenges for the Municipality of West-Interlake. Reeve Randy Helgason says the first meeting of 2016 saw continued discussion regarding unresolved Disaster Financial Assistance Claims. The claims date back to 2011 and 2014, and while the province put a deadline in place in 2015, West-Interlake had an extension meaning the work must be complete by November, 2016. Helgason says their council's working hard to move forward with this work, noting it's become a regular item at their meetings.

"DFA issues are still front and centre. We've extended the deadline for the flood of 2014 to November of this year, so we have until then we wrap things up. Hopefully we can do that, because it's on every agenda we have. Hopefully we can take care of that, and get it solved for the benefit of the municipality."

Helgason says they've been working on meeting with the province since late last year to help them move the file forward, but haven't even heard a response yet.

"We've requested a meeting with (Infrastructure and Transportation) Minister Ashton, who looks after the DFA end of things. We requested that in early December and unfortunately he hasn't responded yet, so I'm a little disappointed with that."

Unresolved DFA claims have been a major challenge for the municipality, especially once amalgamation took place.