Ron Kostyshyn, Dauphin MLA and Manitoba's Agriculture Minister, has been working with the province to make sure the people of Riding Mountain are looked after. The Province of Manitoba announced yesterday that 13 additional communities are now included in the Manitoba Flood Recovery Program.
Many of the newly eligible communities in Kostyshyn's electoral district were not included from the start, despite having very high rainfall amounts and damages. Ste. Rose received between 300-380mm of rainfall between May 1st and July 19th of this year, comparable to Minitonas - which was included from the start. The Dauphin Regional Health Centre is heavily damaged, and is inoperable for an indeterminate amount of time, leaving the community without a healthcare facility - but was not included.
Kostyshyn said looking at his communities, this flooding event shows that these damages can do a lot of harm to the overall community, and the Province including them in the Manitoba Flood Recovery Program is one way they can help.
"I think it's an event that really kind of woke people up, that flooding events can do a lot of damage. It's pretty evident what we've seen now happen, and opportunities that, how it's affected people's residences, is probably one of the hardest, noticeable things that we're dealing with...this program will provide some additional support for those individuals that maybe had some challenging times to get proper insurance, this basically will provide that assurance of financial support to deal with the individuals," said Kostyshyn.
The initial Manitoba Flood Recovery program included the "hardest-hit" communities, according to the Province. That included both Swan River and Minitonas area communities, which were both hit by an earlier round of rainfall and flooding, about halfway through June. The Stonewall area was also included in the intitial program, after they also received heavy rains and flooding midway through June.
Kostyshyn said much of the decision to include additional communities in the Manitoba Flood Recovery Program came from looking how communities hit by flooding on July 1st were affected, and how those compare to damage estimates from flooding and rainfall in June.
"Part of the rationale of our announcement today was, [the initial flooding] occurred in an appropriate timeline, fast forward a week, a week plus later, it happened here in Dauphin, and that is why the department, [Manitoba Transportation and Infrastructure] did additional investigation, and definitely the numbers of people affected by it...whether it's a 1 in 100 year flood, or a 1 in 10,000 year flood, I think we're in a new age of understanding, we need to prepare ourselves for events that may reoccur, hardly want to predict, but I think it's becoming quite evident, flooding events will continue to happen," said Kostyshyn.
If your home or personal property was damaged by flooding between June 6 and July 1, 2026, you may be eligible for financial assistance through the Manitoba Flood Recovery Program. MFRP is for individuals without insurance or without enough insurance. For more information about the Manitoba Flood Recovery Program, click here.
