The Municipality of West-Interlake continues to see challenges related to the floods of 2011 and 2014, as they work on their 2016 budget. Reeve Randy Helgason says they're hoping to borrow up to $1.6 million from the province, to help cover the debt related to those floods. They held a public hearing on the matter last week, and Helgason says they're hoping to see some of the unpaid disaster financial assistance claims come in, to help reduce the amount they're forced to borrow.

"We've applied to borrow up to $1.6 million, but that doesn't mean we have to borrow that much. If DFA monies come in before we set that amount, then it would be applied against that, and we don't want to borrow any more money than we have to."

The unpaid DFA claims have been a challenge for the municipality since the amalgamation of the RMs of Eriksdake and Siglunes in 2015. Siglunes was hit hard in the two flood years, and Helgason says the province indicated they should do what they can to protect residents and land. However, since those floods they've had an ongoing battle to actually receive the funding from those claims. Helgason notes while the debt is one challenge created by this issue, it's also causing significant delays for their 2016 budget.

"It's what's holding up our budget at this point. We hope to resolve it as soon as possible. We've applied to the province and we're waiting for them to approve it. They haven't given us a time frame yet, but we're hoping to receive the money from DFA on outstanding submissions that we've made for the flooding, before then."

The unpaid claims were a hot topic when the municipality released their 2015 Budget, as Helgason noted several people in the crowed were concerned about the issue. West-Interlake's budget also faced some delays last year, due to the amalgamation of the two RMs. It was finally released to the public at the end of July, 2015.