The Manitoba Government has downgraded its projection of a Red River flood and is now calling it a high water event. Infrastructure Minister Ron Schuler says the Red will crest at Winnipeg in about seven days and we can thank the weather of the last few weeks for the improved outlook.

"We're now calling this a high water event rather than a flood event. We've just had the perfect melt ever. What could have been a pretty high water level year, we were looking at something around 2009 levels, we're now looking at under 2011 levels. We are in really good shape as long as we don't get a very big weather event."

Schuler notes they may have to do a bit of ramping on the northbound lanes of Highway #75 at the north end of Morris later this week.

"We're considering ramping up just around the dike a little bit but we expect all four lanes to stay open."

Schuler says the one weather event that could have changed all of this was a snow storm a couple of weeks ago in southern North Dakota, but he adds we dodged that bullet too.

"Most of it hit south of Fargo. It actually hit on the other side of the Laurentian Divide, which means all that snow melted and went south towards the Mississippi."

Municipalities are hoping the province will pay for all of the flood proofing work that was done, based on the province's forecast of a 2009-level flood. Schuler says it's too early to say because the federal government's benchmark for Disaster Financial Assistance has changed.

"So until we get everybody's bills in and we have a look at them, and again, everybody's tracking their hours and their bills and all that kind of stuff, we first have to go through all of that and then we'll see if we hit the first benchmark. And that's a conversation I feel is probably best left for afterwards. Let's first make sure that everybody is safe, that we're doing the best job for the people we represent, then let's talk about how much this cost and where we go from there."