1 week after Kinew visit to Parkland, some flood

1 week after Kinew visit to Parkland, some flood-impacted residents still in dark about provincial aid

Grandview couple flooded by Valley River, Duck Mountain lodge owner say they don't know if help coming

One week after Premier Wab Kinew visited Manitoba's flood-ravaged Parkland region, some residents who've suffered serious losses say they still have no idea when or whether the province will provide financial assistance.

A second round of severe storms blanketed the Porcupine Hills, the Duck Mountains and Riding Mountain at the end of June, engorging rivers along the Manitoba Escarpment and flooding communities in the valleys downstream.

On June 30, the Valley River rushed over its banks west of Grandview, south of the Ducks, and engulfed Dean and Jacquie Morran's home.

Dean had to be rescued by boat as the water rose to the windows of their home and vehicles.

After the river receded, the Morrans have tried to save what they can with the help of Grandview-area residents and hoped to receive some help in form of provincial disaster assistance.

On July 6, Kinew posted a video on Instagram, offering people impacted by flooding to help access those funds.

"If you need help, reach out to my office, the premier's office. We'll help troubleshoot. We'll help problem-solve. We've got your back," Kinew said in the video.

Dean Morran said he took the premier up on his offer.

"I watched Wab on social media saying to get ahold of his office. I phoned his office the next morning and I was told, 'nobody told us that,'" he said in an interview at his home, where furniture and household items salvaged from the flood are laid out in his yard.

"So they put me through to another department," he continued. "Haven't heard nothing back."

Morran said he applied for disaster financial assistance and emergency management organization help and hasn't heard back.

"They were going to have boots on the ground. Things were gonna happen. Maybe it'll come," he said.

"Seems to be whenever there's a disaster in another country, money's gone instantly the next day. But I don't see anything happen here yet."

After CBC News contacted the premier’s office about the Morrans’ concerns on Thursday, Jacquie Morran said the couple received a call from a Kinew representative.

In Duck Mountain Provincial Park, which was evacuated due to the storms. Wellman Lake Lodge lost its Canada Day long weekend business.

The lodge owner expressed his frustration with a lack of communication about disaster assistance by posting an AI-generated Where's Waldo mockup on Facebook, featuring Kinew in place of Waldo.

"Where's Wab? Help us find our premier!" reads the text on the mockup.

Lodge owner Cam McIntyre said he has not heard from Kinew since the premier visited the Parkland on July 2.

"We've been asking for help from provincial politicians but we haven't heard anything back as to whether there is going to be any sort of help for us," he told CBC's Radio Noon on Thursday.

Manitoba administers disaster financial assistance, the federal government shares the cost.

Manitoba Liberal cabinet minister Rebecca Chartrand told CBC News Manitoba needs to make a request for additional assistance and both governments will work together on a funding threshold.

In a statement issued Thursday afternoon, Kinew spokesperson Amy Tuckett-McGimpsey said the province is deploying more staff to communities in Swan Valley, north of the Ducks, to help process insurance claims and financial assistance applications and access flood recovery programs.

She did not address the statements made by Morran in Grandview or McIntyre within Duck Mountain Provincial Park.

More than 50 Manitoba municipalities have declared local states of emergency due to flooding, storms

How geography, climate change conspired to create summer floods in the Parklands

Kinew last addressed reporters about the flooding or recovery on July 2. His office declined CBC News requests for interviews on Thursday.

As Manitoba's opposition leader in 2022, Kinew criticized then Manitoba premier Heather Stefanson for posting on social media instead of speaking to reporters during Interlake floods that spring.

"There’s no substitute for being able to ask questions of a decision-maker directly, rather than having what you get on Twitter," Kinew, a former journalist, told the Winnipeg Free Press.

"It should be an opportunity for a premier to communicate with Manitobans and also respond to the important questions that journalists have right now," Kinew said at the time.

Bartley Kives joined CBC Manitoba in 2016. Prior to that, he spent three years at the Winnipeg Sun and then 18 at the Winnipeg Free Press, writing about politics, music, food and outdoor recreation. He's the author of three books - two of them Canadian bestsellers - and the winner of a Canadian Screen Award for reporting.

With files from Catherine Moreau, Marjorie Dowhos and Paul Pitura