By Chris Jaster
Ziomara Anstey is getting more and more frustrated with the Provincial Disaster Assistance Program (PDAP) and she doesn’t know what to do anymore.
Anstey, the owner of Maple Grove Motel, has lost all of her summer business because she’s still waiting for reports from the government about how much work she has to do on her buildings.
“We received a report from the adjustors, which was missing the electrical part, the mechanical part and the plumbing part. Not only that, but we’re still missing the engineering report,” she said. “I was told it was supposed to be mailed last week and to this day I haven’t received it,” Anstey said Aug. 23.
While the motel was being inspected by a structural engineer, Anstey heard some of the buildings may have to be lifted because the floodwater that hit Maple Creek on June 18 may have altered the foundation. She has talked to representatives from the Saskatchewan Emergency Management Organization, and keeps getting told to wait until next week.
While waiting week after week for her reports to arrive, Anstey found out it would cost $80,000 to lift her buildings. The total adjustment she was quoted with the 20 per cent deductible she’s responsible for was $133,000 — a far cry from the $500,000 maximum.
To make matters worse, the adjustors who looked at her motel depreciated the value of everything by 40 per cent, claiming that everything was between 15 to 20 years old, which Anstey said isn’t true.
“How can they say it was 15 to 20 years old when they didn’t even see it? By the time they came here, everything was gone,” said Anstey, who purchased the motel in 2006. “Ever since we came here we upgraded things and changed flooring and changed furniture.
“We just changed the beds the weekend before (the flood). That’s why it annoys me that they told me that everything was 15 to 20 years old.”
Mieka Torgrimson, the director for Saskatchewan Emergency Management Organization, said adjustors use depreciation to bring the costs down to pre-disaster conditions.
“They do a full restoration, but because we can only reimburse to a pre-disaster condition that’s a mechanism to bring the costs down,” said Torgrimson. “It’s still up to the program’s staff to determine the final eligibility, so all of that is checked and if there needs to be adjustments made then that is done prior to any payments being processed on the claim.
“If there are concerns, they need to call our office and voice those concerns. If we see a mistake was made or we need more information from the claimant, then we’ll get that and it will be reassessed.”
Residents with any questions regarding their PDAP claims may also talk to the ministry representative who is stationed at the town hall on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.
Anstey, whose rooms had at least a bar fridge, chairs, television, telephone, desk and bed, has been complaining about the depreciation for a while, but said nobody has asked to see the receipts.
As frustrated as she is about it taking so long for her to get cheques from the government and the engineering report so she can start doing work on her place, Anstey knows she’s not the only business in this situation.
“I think all the businesses got hit hard. I don’t think I’m an exception, I think I’m common,” she said. “I know that they have worked very hard to get their businesses to where they are right now, so we’re not the exception.”
This waiting game, however, might cost Anstey her business. She figures if repairs to her motel aren’t started this fall, then she will be forced to make renovations all next summer, losing two years of revenue during the busiest time of the year.
“I don’t know (if we’ll survive if we miss the next season),” she said. “To tell you truth, a few times we’ve felt like just dropping the keys off at the town and just moving on.
“It’s just so frustrating and I know PDAP is trying to do what they can, but they’re not the ones in this situation so they don’t know what it’s like. They don’t like it when people ask questions, but they don’t understand what people are going through. It would be a different story if they were the ones living through it.”