Canada: Alberta's cities rarely spend federal cash on disaster prevention

Asked by Globe and Mail after the flooding why the city has not spent on flood prevention projects, Mr Naheed Nenshi – who has been the mayor of Calgary since 2010 – said that “While we are incredibly appreciative of the federal government’s commitment to infrastructure funding, most recently in Budget 2013, all we can ever fund is a small portion of what needs to be done.”

However, he added that the city has done as much on flood planning as it has been able to afford on its own. Flood prevention, he said, “has never seemed to be a hugely sexy thing, particularly among the other orders of government. But we have been working quietly away on it, beavering away on a plan.”