The southwest berm is moving ever so slowly through the provincial government process but it's still moving.

Mayor Craig Snodgrass says relationships are good and communication is wide open.

"We had a very fortunate thing with Alberta Environment right after the flood where things were running through approvals really fast because they (the Province) wanted us protected by June," he says the reality is High River is on the docket like every other community in Alberta."

He says he recently wrote to the Deputy Minister.

"Since then the file has moved to at least an internal review, which is excellent news and we'll keep pushing so that they get through that as quickly as possible," the mayor says.

He says the big thing now is to get to the public consultation stage but in the meantime they're talking with local landowners so they know what's going on before it hits them.

Snodgrass says that consultation stage could be four months away and it could take six months to complete so he doesn't expect and physical work to begin on the site anytime soon.