WINNIPEG - The Manitoba government says the cost of last year's flooding is expected to top $1.25 billion.
Infrastructure Minister Steve Ashton says disaster aid, payouts for damaged crops and other measures are still being tallied.
Ashton expects to recoup a few hundred million dollars from federal disaster programs.
He says disaster relief alone has totalled $289 million -- about $53 million more than was paid out during the so-called flood of the century in 1997.
Ashton also says the province now recognizes there was artificial flooding downstream from the Shellmouth Dam -- mostly on agricultural land -- and there will be compensation for those affected.
Heavy rain last spring resulted in a deluge of water over a large swath of southern Manitoba which forced thousands of people from their homes.
