By Marcia Love
A Maple Creek resident is hoping to garner support from the community to petition for more changes to the Provincial Disaster Assistance Program (PDAP).
Daniel Caron would like to see a number of modifications made to the program after receiving a PDAP adjusters initial assessment report on flood damage to his Hood Street home.
Although improvements were made to the program earlier this month, Caron feels the enhancements will not benefit many residents.
“They increased the maximum payout to $240,000, but that doesn’t really do anything – at least for most people affected,” he said. “They have smaller homes that don’t even reach anywhere near the original $160,000 payout anyway.”
Caron would like to see PDAP refer to the homeowner’s insurance policy when determining the amount to administer payments.
“It’s a very simple idea,” he said. “Just take the amount of what (a homeowner’s) replacement costs would be.”
However, it’s a concept Mieka Torgrimson, acting director for Saskatchewan Emergency Management with Corrections, Public Safety and Policing, doesn’t believe works for the program.
She said PDAP is not intended to act in the same way as insurance.
“Insurance is a replacement cost, and this program is not intended to compete with insurance,” Torgrimson explained. “(PDAP) is only intended to help restore (a home) to a pre-disaster condition for essential belongings.”
In the rebuilding process, she said PDAP looks at the market value of a home.
“If a home is 30 years old, we have to take that into account,” Torgrimson said.
Since the basement and first floor of his house were flooded on June 18, Caron has questioned whether his home will be condemned. He is waiting for a structural engineer to examine the house. In the meantime, he is living in a room at the Maple Creek Motor Inn.
PDAP assessed his home and gave him an estimate on the restoration. Caron was not satisfied with the amount he was to receive should his house not be condemned.
He is unsure if he will be able to cover the deduction costs for the repair work.
“I set up here in town four years ago with a very small pension,” he said. “I managed to come up with enough money over the years to come and settle here, but I can’t afford to do it again.”
For the removal of Caron’s flood-warped living room floor planking, PDAP proposed a total of $12.84 for the labour involved. The floor is 214 square feet.
“That’s just not possible,” he said. “You’re not going to be able to take that floor out for that cost.”
Caron is also concerned with the problems he may encounter with his acoustic ceiling tiles, as some of the walls in his house have to be removed to clear out the sawdust insulation and mouldy paneling. His first floor ceilings were not covered for flood damage.
“The ceiling is all over the place because the moisture just made it sag down,” he explained. “Once you start removing the wall paneling, (tiles) start falling down and they have to be replaced. These things are not even addressed in the adjuster’s report.”
Caron hopes other residents with similar concerns about their payments from PDAP and the deduction costs will speak out.
“There are a lot of people affected (by the deductible) that can’t afford this,” he said.

Daniel Caron shows the damage his walls sustained from the flood. He is unsure if he will be able to afford PDAP’s deductible to rebuild his home and hopes more changes to the program will aid residents in the same situation.  Photo by Marcia Love