The Provincial Disaster Assistance Program is offering a one-year extension to the repair and restoration deadline for those affected by severe weather damage in 2010.
Previously, claimants were told they would need to have all repairs and clean-up to their damaged property completed within one year of the incident. Letters being sent out this month announce that the time limit is now two years.
"It's a blanket extension for all open claims," says Mieka Torgrimson, Acting Director for the Saskatchewan Emergency Management Organization.
The extension comes in response to a variety of circumstances preventing repairs from being completed around the province, including a lack of available contractors and delays in processing and payment by PDAP. Torgrimson could not provide exact figures, but a large number of applicants have still not received full payment for flood damage that occurred last summer.
In March, the provincial government announced changes at PDAP meant to speed up processing times, including the addition of 30 temporary staff.
"They are looking at different ways of processing the claims," Torgrimson says.
The acting director cautions that the extension does not affect eligibility for payment; that will still be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.
Eleven hundred and seventy disaster assistance claims were filed in Yorkton in 2010.
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