The city of Merritt is looking to help homeowners rebuild by waiving some fees.

Spokesperson Greg Lowis says in addition to having free applications for certain permits it is also expediting the process.

“From the homeowner’s standpoint, we had a council meeting [on Tuesday] and council voted to waive various application fees for permits in order to provide support for people who are rebuilding their homes have been damaged in this. So for example development permits for form and character areas, technical development permits, building permits. The permits still need to exist to give the homeowner protection.”

“But there aren’t any fees to apply for them for the people in the flood inundation zone and our development services staff will be doing their best to expedite the processing as well. So we help that will help people start the rebuilding process as soon as possible, but the fees have been waived until 2023.”

Councillor Kurt Christopherson said during the Tuesday meeting that this is something that will really benefit the community. “It will help the people the have been so sorely distressed, and I think it will be a good news story for people to see there’s hope for the future.”

Lowis says the municipality is also making some progress towards functioning in a somewhat normal capacity. He says it lifted the boil water advisory this week and adds that it was able to operate normal snow clearing. It was one of the first challenges the city has been able to tackle with normal operations since the mid-November flood.