'Sleeping in cars': Wildfire support is too slow in Saskatchewan, ombudsman says
Saskatchewan's ombudsman says Premier Scott Moe's government is failing to provide immediate food, shelter and basic information to fire evacuees, but officials say they're moving as fast as they can.
Saskatchewan's ombudsman says Premier Scott Moe's government is failing to provide immediate food, shelter and basic information to fire evacuees, but officials say they're moving as fast as they can.
Ombudsman Sharon Pratchler, in a news conference Tuesday, said evacuees calling in for help are being told the government will get back to them in four days.
“'We will get back to you in four days’ is not a response that should be given,” Pratchler said.
She said her staff are being overwhelmed trying to match evacuees with supports, and said some evacuees are being forced to sleep in their cars.
“The time for working on it has passed, and an immediate response is required," she said.
Asked about what she's hearing from evacuees, Pratchler said: “I don’t have a place to sleep tonight. I don’t have food. My baby doesn’t have diapers."
"People are hungry, people are getting sick," she said, adding that her office took two days to find supports for one evacuee who works for the Saskatchewan government.
Saskatchewan's ombudsman says Premier Scott Moe's government is failing to provide immediate food, shelter and basic information to fire evacuees, but officials say they're moving as fast as they can.
Pratchler said there were other concerns: aid money being given to evacuees isn't retroactive to the day they were forced out of their homes; information from government is muddied and needs to be delivered clearly; a database is needed to co-ordinate resources.
Opposition NDP member Jordan McPhail said Pratchler’s concerns echo what he is hearing.
“People being bounced around from agency to agency, with no clear information. Phone numbers that don’t work, emails that never receive a response,” McPhail said in a news release.
“At every turn, pure chaos and callous failure. Anger. Frustration. Hopelessness."
Marlo Pritchard, head of the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency, said they’ve brought in 14 more staffers and are focusing on higher priority cases.
“We’re triaging it,” Pritchard told a virtual news conference. “We’re going to get through that backlog as quickly as humanly possible.”
Asked if the agency had prepared for possible backlogs, Pritchard said it had, but the demand proved overwhelming.
"Those that identified right at the start that they needed hotels, we did our best to get them into hotels," he said.
He said teams were also heading into heavy-hit areas like Denare Beach to confirm which structures have burned and which are still standing.
Moe's office, in an email, said the government is working to address concerns and that he would address reporters early Wednesday.
Saskatchewan is dealing with multiple fires in the north that have forced between 10,000 and 15,000 people to flee, including 7,000 from the La Ronge area.
The province has 23 wildfires, with 33 communities completely or partially evacuated.
Steve Roberts of the SPSA said weather conditions and firefighting work have allowed the blazes to stay contained, as more people in more communities are slowly being allowed to return.
The fires menacing Saskatchewan are among many across Canada, forcing evacuations from British Columbia through to Ontario. Plumes of smoke have drifted across the country, prompted air quality warnings and were expected to leave traces as far away as Europe.
Both Manitoba and Saskatchewan have invoked states of emergency to help various levels of government deliver aid as they experience some of their worst fire seasons in recent years.
About 21,000 have been forced out of communities in Manitoba ahead of the fires, including all 5,000 residents of the city of Flin Flon and about 6,700 from Pimicikamak Cree Nation.
On Monday, Premier Wab Kinew’s government urged tourists to reconsider visiting the province for now as it strives to find hotel rooms or other shelters for evacuees.
Manitoba has about 15,000 hotel rooms in total.
Loren Remillard, the head of the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce, said taking care of Manitobans is the priority, but said cancelling travel plans can be easier said than done.
"There are some calls we're getting from people that have booked conferences and (are) wondering what the scenario is," Remillard said Tuesday.
"These are not a matter of just changing your plans for a weekend. These are events that have been in the works for perhaps a year or two or more, and you have delegates coming from across the country or from outside the country."
Both the chamber and Travel Manitoba, an industry association, said summer tourism is critical.
"The majority of tourism operators in Manitoba are small and medium-sized businesses, many of whom are reliant on a busy summer season to survive," Travel Manitoba spokeswoman Louise Waldman wrote in an email.
Manitoba's summer tourism season is set to be in full swing in the coming weeks, with the Winnipeg Folk Festival in early July among the top events.
-- with files from Steve Lambert in Winnipeg
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