TRURO, N.S. -- The Nova Scotia government says it will fix a dike in the Truro area, a day after it said repairing the privately built flood barrier wasn't its responsibility.
The berm on the North River was damaged by a storm that caused flooding almost two weeks ago.
Several business owners in the area had warned they were worried about further flooding if it wasn't repaired.
On Thursday, Agriculture Minister John MacDonell -- whose department is responsible for many dikes in the area -- said the berm was built by a private citizen and it wasn't the government's responsibility to fix it.
But the province's Emergency Management Office said Friday that Transportation Department staff would repair it.
Government backbencher Lenore Zann, who represents the riding of Truro-Bible Hill, said Premier Darrell Dexter had promised that flood damage would be repaired as part of a larger overall assessment of the dike system.
"The province has always said we intend to fix the overall problem," Zann said in an interview.
She said officials assessed the North River site and determined that water levels in the area were still too high to begin work immediately.
Zann said work will begin Monday to plug three breaches that have since been found.
She said rain forecast for the area over the weekend shouldn't pose a threat in the meantime.
"At one point we were concerned that there was going to be up to 70 millimetres of water again this weekend, but now they are saying it will probably only be about 25 millimetres and we should be safe," Zann said.
The government has said emergency management officials are scheduled to meet with municipal officials and engineering experts on Wednesday to discuss what needs to be done to shore up the entire dike system in the area.
