CBRM waits 7 years for financial reimbursement payouts after Thanksgiving storm

More than 220mm of rain fell in less than 24 hours in Sydney, N.S., in October of 2016 -- uprooting lives and destroying homes.

Walter Doue lived in the so-called flood zone and remembers the days after were filled with confusion.

“The mayor’s office sent us to the engineering office and then back to the mayor. We were just going round and round,” said Doue.

Seven years later and the Cape Breton Regional Municipality says it's still waiting for the province for financial reimbursement payments for storm-related claims.

“It's totally unacceptable to me that this amount of time has gone by,” said Eldon MacDonald, a Cape Breton Regional Municipality (CBRM) councillor. “We're over $5 million for Fiona. Is it going to take until 2030 or 2031 to get that money back?”

MacDonald says more than $1.7 million was submitted to cover damages after the storm, but only $900,000 has been paid to the municipality.

“We cannot afford to put out millions and millions of dollars of our revenue and not receive it back in a reasonable time period,” said MacDonald.

Nova Scotia’s minister of municipal affairs and housing says the holdup is on the CBRM side.

“We're still waiting on them on some of the paperwork, and to be fair to CBRM, some of it hasn't been completed. Some of the work they're doing will be done this summer in relation to the 2016 flood, which is flood mitigation work and they'll be able to make a claim on that then,” said John Lohr.

Meanwhile, Doue says there needs to be less red tape and a better system put in place to help municipalities and their residents in a quicker timeframe.

“If you're going to give money away you should know who is going to get it and how to apply for it,” said Doue.

The province says until the work is done, the rest of the money won't be paid out.