Fort McMurray resident frustrated by steep rebuild fees

"We got our demolition permit on Friday, had our property cleaned right away," Whenam said.

"A couple weeks later, I get a letter from the city that our property was unsightly, unsafe and it was a mess, and if it wasn't cleaned up they were doing it for us and they were going to charge us for it."

Government bureaucracy at it's finest! "Yea, we know your entire subdivision burnt down. It's a mess. Can you clean it up?"

There's no way these people aren't coming out of that disaster without being screwed. Nature of the times now. Makes me wonder how that entire town and m.d. is being run. After the Penhorwood condo catastrophe I wouldn't take anything the official up there say at face value. It's taken them over a decade to finish off those highway interchanges that would have been finished in a several years (or less) in Calgary or Edmonton. They also have that mess downtown where they shut down and bulldozed that entire ugly housing complex on the north side of the street opposite from the hospital in order to build some massive sports complex and hockey rink for their junior team. They kicked all those tenants out for that purpose in a town where lodgings were at a premium then put the entire plan on hold. Seems like they have big plans but take a fairly half-assed approach to scheduling and completion.