NWT mulls financial aid for wildfire evacuees who arranged their own way out

Open this photo in gallery:

The Northwest Territories is considering financial assistance for residents who evacuated the region on their own, a policy reversal that could lighten the burden for those who paid out of pocket for their costly escape from advancing wildfires.

The federal government, meanwhile, said it will look at providing extra cash to the territory as its firefighting and evacuation expenses soar. Roughly 26,000 NWT residents, representing about two-thirds of the territory’s population, last week funnelled south, largely into Alberta and a world of uncertainty, as they fled wildfires in and around multiple northern communities, including Yellowknife.

The territory’s Finance Minister, Caroline Wawzonek, acknowledged Tuesday night that without financial help, some evacuees may not be able to return home when threats subside. Territorial legislators, she said, still have to figure out how much money will be available and how it will be divvied up.

Territorial officials have struggled to provide clear and consistent information during the disaster, leaving evacuees complaining that they are feeling anxious and confused. NWT’s shifting policies, which range from waffling on financial assistance to signalling support for online learning for evacuated students only to reject the idea a day later, underscore how governments need to better prepare for more frequent and intense natural disasters. NWT is making policy on the fly, Ms. Wawzonek said, because this is the first time it has dealt with an emergency of this magnitude.

“We simply can’t design programs or policies or guidelines to respond to a situation that we’ve never faced before,” Ms. Wawzonek said Tuesday evening, when explaining why it took NWT about a week to confirm it would offset costs for evacuees who arranged their own transportation out of the territory. “But we’re in that situation now and we are now in a position to do that hard work.”

Heather Killingsworth and her partner have put more than $1,000 on their credit card to stay in an Edmonton hotel, and spent hundreds more on gasoline and food, after fleeing Yellowknife. Without any assurance that they’ll be reimbursed by the territorial government, they are considering buying a tent to camp in, or sleeping in their vehicle with their two dogs.

“The stress of the finances is just hitting a tipping point,” Ms. Killingsworth said on Wednesday. “I’m really disappointed in the NWT government. Not the essential workers – we always appreciate the firefighters and everyone staying up there – but the government as a whole. It feels like they’re letting us down.”

She and her partner are piecing together tidbits of information about financial assistance and other support by word-of-mouth from other evacuees instead of from the territorial government, whose communication she called “frustrating.” She said it feels like the territorial government and Yellowknife have abandoned residents.

Lack of local media, Meta’s news block impact Northwest Territories residents’ access to information

NWT’s forthcoming assistance policy must be fair, reasonable, and responsive, according to the Finance Minister. Ms. Wawzonek on Tuesday said it is challenging to figure out how to “fairly and responsibly” compensate the majority of evacuees who paid for their own transportation and accommodations in the initial rush to flee NWT. Officials in the territory, in a press conference Aug. 16, ordered 22,000 residents in and around Yellowknife to leave by Aug. 18.

Authorities encouraged people to leave via the highway so those without a ride, along with medically compromised citizens, could fill the seats on government-arranged evacuation flights. Some residents paid for their own commercial flights out. Thousands more were instructed to leave communities south of Great Slave Lake prior to the Yellowknife order.

Ms. Wawzonek noted that while the finance department is exploring funding options, the government wants to keep its evacuation costs within the federal disaster assistance program. “The fire suppression costs are astronomical. We have to figure all this out within our capacity and our means.”

Given the cost of the evacuation, as well as firefighting expenses, she said legislators will have to consider rejigging the territorial budget, Ms. Wawzonek said.

NWT legislators are scheduled to meet Aug. 28 to vote on a spending bill to cover wildfire costs, as well as delaying the territory’s general election, currently slated for Oct. 3. NWT’s 2023-2024 budget forecasts $2.8-billion in revenue and $2.7-billion in expenses. Most of the territory’s revenue flows from Ottawa.

Federal Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, speaking in Charlottetown on Wednesday, said there are existing disaster relief programs in place that support expenditures for provinces and territories, and to provide support for people who are evacuated.

“We have our standard way of doing this,” she said. The federal government will work with the leadership of NWT on what might be some “extraordinary expenses,” she added.

“The important thing is for people to be safe today,” Ms. Freeland said. “And then the important thing is for people to be able to rebuild their lives.”

Indigenous Services Minister Patty Hajdu on Tuesday said she has spoken with a number of chiefs to reassure them Ottawa will be there to help with cash flow.

“Often, communities are very small and have limited capacity,” she said. “The department has stepped up, both in practical supports to help co-ordinate some of those evacuations, to provide health supports, and then to provide the financial supports that are necessary in these extraordinary times.”

The fire threatening Yellowknife was 15 kilometres from the municipal boundary, Jessica Davey-Quantick, a spokeswoman for Environment and Climate Change, said Wednesday evening.

Back in Edmonton, Ms. Killingsworth has applied for the NWT’s one-time payment of $750 for residents whose employment has been disrupted for more than seven days. The territory developed this program this spring, when Hay River evacuated owing to wildfires. The community emptied again Aug. 13.

The couple also reached out to the Red Cross for financial support but that process has been bumpy. Ms. Killingsworth said they could end up pleading for answers at the evacuation centre again on Thursday, her 40th birthday.

“It just gets more and more frustrating,” she said. “My partner just said it feels like now we’re going to have to go bankrupt because we’re never going to get this money back.”