Murray Wood: Local radio is strong. Corporate ownership, not so much
Murray Wood says Rogers closed some stations that should be very viable. As a result, more communities are losing import...
What will be the total financial cost of the damage from flooding in 2026?
That’s an amount still to be determined, with 12 communities remaining under emergency declarations and highway crews working to get damaged roads open again.
Read more:
- Scott Moe says province committed to doing better after report criticized wildfire response
- Volunteers rally as eastern Saskatchewan flooding devastates town
- ‘Yellowing and drowned out crops’ follow heavy rainfall in Saskatchewan: Crop report
We’re currently in the assessment phase,” Noel McAvena with the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency (SPSA) said on Thursday. “Engineers, adjusters and appraisers are attending communities and trying to enumerate those damages.
“It would be, obviously, the damage you need to identify, and (the Ministry of) Highways also has assessments ongoing. We’ll need to identify what the necessary repairs are before we can even begin to create an accurate estimate of what the cost of those repairs might be.”
During a briefing hosted by the SPSA, Ministry of Highways spokesperson, Dan Palmer, offered some examples of the type of work the ministry is doing.
One example was Highway 49, west of Pelly, where a culvert was reported washed out on June 30 and a temporary bridge has since been installed.
“We have 10 locations where water is affecting driving lanes on provincial highways, so this is certainly better than it was previously, but there’s obviously still some impact on the provincial highway network,” he said.
Communities under declarations of local emergency include Keeseekoose First Nation, the rural municipalities of Insinger, Meadow Lake, Redberry, Sliding Hills, Sasman, and Britannia. The town of Raymore, the villages of Pelly and Annaheim, and the resort villages of Leslie Beach and Chorney Beach have also declared states of emergency.
Fire season an improvement over 2025
The agency said 72 wildfires were active as of 11 a.m. on Thursday. Bryan Chartrand with the SPSA said the number and size of the fires have been less than last year, though they can be just as intense.
“Essentially when these fires do get up and go, we are experiencing the same heat intensities and intensity in class,” Chartrand explained. “Recently, though, we did receive precip, and that did give us some reprieve, and an opportunity to get some line put in.”
“We’re sitting better than this time last year. Conditions aren’t as bad, but they are still pretty dry and these fires are still presenting challenges for us.”
Chartrand said the humidity in the forecast would help, but the wind creates a challenge.
“If it gets windy, that will drive the fire,” he said, “and again, hot and humid conditions make it a difficult environment to to work in, as well. Lots of heavy lifting and rough terrain that our crews gotta go through.”
