It was disheartening to hear about the plight of residents from Roche Percee, or former residents of that village, and other valley homeowners, who are still struggling to find their collective feet following last summer's flood.
These people are right when they suggest that following the headlined events, they've been left floundering in the mud, much like those thousands of fish were when they ended up on the other side of the reservoir wall once the water levels returned to more normal flows.
It seems that once again those in need will find themselves as victims of the slowness that is almost a trademark item when one has to deal with big government or big business. Those wheels just don't move quickly and when they do start rotating, it's only a slow spin in the muck and nothing really moves forward.
Following the floods of 2010, victims in Maple Creek and Yorkton were left lurching for quite awhile. In fact some of them are still waiting for compensation decisions. So perhaps no one should have been surprised at the lack of speed in getting to the source of assistance for the victims of 2011.
We understand that a certain degree of vetting and checking must be carried out before cheques can be cut, after all it is taxpayer money being doled out.
But when we hear of taxpayer dollars often being spent foolishly on all kinds of crazy government schemes, we wonder where the sense and sensibility factors are when it comes to paying out legitimate claims.
If there are a few additional dollars disbursed ... dollars that might be designated as overpayments ... we say, so what? It's not as if those reclamation dollars are going to be wasted on frivolous items.
We're talking about people who have been devastated and in some instances wiped out. Some of the victims were families of some means and ongoing cash flow while others were family units of limited means and cash flow.
The flood waters didn't pick and choose and neither should those who are supposed to be allocating the compensation funds. A home is a home ... game, set and match.
There are fine support networks out there to help the victims regain some strength and dignity, but the heavy hauling is what we expect from our representatives in the provincial and federal bureaucracies. This is no time for butt covering, it's time for action.
The sooner these victims can be reimbursed, the sooner they can get back to some sense of normalcy and again contribute to the economic and social flow of their respective communities.
This is why we have bureaucratic infrastructure in place ... to provide assistance when it is needed for those who need it and to act swiftly when circumstances call for them to do so.
Too many months have gone by now to describe any senior government action plan a swift response, but it's not too late for them to at least provide a little timely compensation and activity. These are not dollars being sent overseas to prop up foreign dictators. It's money going back to those who have paid into the system and who now require a little bit of it back to help them get re-established. It shouldn't be such a big deal to get it done.
