george groeneveld, mla for highwood, headed a flood mitigation committee consisting of representatives from alberta infrastructure and transportation (inftra), alberta environment (aenv) and alberta municipal affairs (ma). in their report they described how, "in alberta, major floods along rivers and streams have resulted in loss of lives and hundreds of millions of dollars in damages. major recent flood events occurred in 1995, 1997 and 2005. river floods can occur throughout the year with precipitation leading to summer floods (1995 and 2005 floods) and river ice creating a potential for flooding in the winter (1997 floods). river flooding in southern alberta during the spring of 2005 tragically resulted in the loss of 3 lives and an economic loss of hundreds of millions of dollars." they noted that, "all levels of government have a role to play in a provincial flood mitigation strategy for alberta.