Roger Sutton- Getting it right | Canterbury Opinion | Local Voices from Canterbury, New Zealand

The new year is well under way  and here at CERA we have been working extremely hard to get land decisions through to help people have more certainty with their lives.

The situation for the remaining orange and white zone residents has been at best frustrating and, at worse, heartbreaking. I understand that. The Minister understands that. But the issues have not been simple to resolve.

And I know we say this over and over, but we absolutely have to get it right to ensure the people of our city are treated fairly, and the options for recovery and rebuild are soundly tested before major decisions are made. An example of that is the recent decision to amend residential red zone eligibility criteria and allow the four rest homes and retirement villages in red zones to receive Government offers.

Strictly speaking these are commercial businesses. The residents normally don't own the land or the buildings - the business owners do. And as other business owners with properties in the red zones know, the priority for CERA has been on zoning and assisting residential as opposed to commercial property owners.

But these rest homes and retirement villages have been asking us for months to reconsider and enable them to be regarded as residential rather than commercial. And so last month the minister did just that - the businesses have now been given a red zone offer.

So it is disappointing for me to hear that there has been a complaint from one such business that in its case the Government won't be offering enough money and it wants to be assessed on a completely separate system to any other red zone residents. In the frustration and despair this series of earthquakes have caused, this is the kind of battle we want to tackle the least.

The earthquakes were not fair on anyone. And the widespread devastation is a huge, huge challenge for our insurance industry. That is why CERA was developed and why we are doing our best to make land decisions and financial offers to those who are the most disadvantaged. We know not everyone will be happy and some will be out of pocket - staff at CERA included.

Many have suffered from the earthquakes and since have been going through the EQC, insurance and Government offer processes. There are, to be blunt, winners and losers.

But the process is the fairest way through for the majority and we must forge ahead to ensure everyone gets at least the certainty of their future, be that in their home or in a new one. We will continue to work hard and I just ask you all for your continued patience and understanding as we do our best to find the right solution to enable our city to recover and rebuild.

*Roger Sutton is chief executive of Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority. If you want to comment on his editorial email star.reporters@starcanterbury.co.nz