WHEREAS many municipalities in southern Saskatchewan have experienced losses to infrastructure and roadways due to overland flooding; and

WHEREAS there is limited access to municipalities for high resolution topography mapping information that can be used for flood abatement projects, long term planning and zoning decisions; and

WHEREAS Light Detection and Ranging (LiDar) is a remote sensing technology that can be used to create high resolution contour maps; and

WHEREAS hundreds of thousands of dollars have been spent on Provincial Disaster Assistance Program claims for recent flooding events;

BE IT RESOLVED that the Province of Saskatchewan enter into an agreement to cost share with municipalities and industry the capture of LiDar information to be utilized for decision making, flood abatement programs, and long term planning.

MINISTRY OF GOVERNMENT RELATIONS' RESPONSE

• The Ministry of Government Relations (GR) supports the ongoing implementation and improvement of technology to improve the provincial public safety system.

• Flooding has indeed been severe over the past several years, resulting in significant impacts to communities, individuals, the environment and the economy.

• GR undertakes lessons-learned activities following each significant flood event, and major incidents of any type, and is committed to improving its coordination of provincial resources and the advice and assistance provided to communities.

• GR will continue to work closely with the Water Security Agency to identify options for use of technology, such as LiDAR, to further improve public safety capacity in Saskatchewan.