Cape Breton flood victims unhappy with compensation offer

CTV Atlantic: CB flood victims unhappy with compensation offer Cape Bretoners affected by the Thanksgiving flood say compensation offered doesn’t come close to covering costs. CTV’s Kyle Moore reports.

People in the flood zone area of Sydney are not happy with the compensation being offered by government.

18 homes have been declared uninhabitable, but home owners say the money offered doesn’t even come close to covering their costs.

“You might be warm in your homes for the holidays, but you still have a lot of people who are homeless in our area here. The politicians were all here on the ground, but they’re certainly not helping us now,” says Terry Drohan, whose property was damaged in the October flood.

Drohan says residents are currently left with the choice to sell their home to the province, or repair them. The problem is, they say the offers are less than what their homes and the contents inside are worth.

“If you were to look at everything you have in your home and somebody told you they were going to take all of it and give you 15 cents on the dollar for it, think about how you would feel if you had to go out and replace everything you own,” Drohan explains.

The municipality and the homeowners agreed in October to make the area a ‘no development zone’ meaning more than 18 homes would be levelled, but the province says they’re not there yet.

“If home owners want to leave, the assessed value will be what they are provided with. If there’s any question related to the appraisal, the province is willing to fund a second appraisal,” says Zach Churchill, the Minister responsible for EMO.

Churchill says the overall cost to the province will be nearly $15 million. There is no deadline on how long homeowners will have to decide whether to take the governments offer or look elsewhere.

“What they delivered today is a market appraisal, and a standardized list of contents is something they could have printed off in one week, instead we’ve been hanging by our finger nails,” says Drohan.

More than two months after they lost their property, Drohan says the group will continue to fight for what they feel is fair value.

With files from CTV Atlantic’s Kyle Moore.