The Alberta government has put $50 million aside as an initial allocation to help pay the enormous costs of getting residents of Slave Lake back on their feet after wildfires destroyed much of the town.
Premier Ed Stelmach made the announcement Thursday and stressed this was just the beginning of what would be needed to rebuild the devastated community.
“This first allocation is just for the comforts of the evacuees. Every individual family has different needs and different circumstances.”
Stelmach was pleased to hear insurance companies who visited the area this week stress that home policies will cover the costs, but there could be many unknowns for residents who have been displaced.
Stelmach said the scale of the disaster means the residents are going to have many different and complex needs.
“We also have to keep in mind that many people will not be able to return to where they were working. Their house may be gone, but also some of the businesses,” he said. “Some are staying with friends, some are staying with family, some may not want to come back, but there are individual needs.”
To help connect them with the assistance, Stelmach was asking all Slave Lake evacuees, even those that might not need any assistance from the organization, to register with the Red Cross.
“Once they are registered the Red Cross can put families together and we will have a registration we can go to in terms of the evacuees.”
The government announced that more than 350 houses had been destroyed in the fire and provided a map to evacuees detailing which homes had been destroyed or damaged.
It also announced more details of the program on Friday. The government will focus on those staying in evacuation centres at first, but all Slave Lake evacuees and those who have been evacuated from other communities, will be eligible for cash payments of $1,250 for adults and $500 for children. Those payments are designed to help cover expenses while they are out of their homes.
The province has also announced it will cover 100 per cent of housing costs for evacuees, until the end of August and will work with the evacuees to help them find a place to live.
Stelmach said he understands the evacuees are frustrated, but it will likely be some time before they can go back to the community.
“We know people want to come back, they want to look to see if their house is still standing to see what the situation is like, but we just have to make sure everybody is safe, everybody has been safe so far and we don’t want to lose a life or have an injury.”
The City of St. Albert has also announced it will help evacuees staying in the community with free transit passes and admission to Fountain Park Recreation Centre. Servus Credit Union Place has free passes, the Kinsmen will be providing free admission to the Rainmaker Rodeo and the International Children’s Festival will be providing free tickets if any are available.
All of the above groups are asking only that the evacuees provide some proof they lived in Slave Lake.
