$16M in Red Cross Fiona donations still haven’t been distributed to impacted residents
Blake has no generator and lives in a rural area with her own well. She filled her bathtub in advance of the storm, but has since had to rely on a rain barrel for water to flush her toilet. When that ran out a few days ago, the local fire department came by to fill it up.Her family has relied on community warming centres, where warm meals and water have been provided to locals in need of assistance.
“Every normal task is a challenge without electricity and I’m getting worried about the weather,” she said.“The house was just freezing on Monday and Tuesday and my mom, who has a heart condition, has had a hard time with just trying to stay warm. I’m just so tired of living in survival mode.” “To hear that none of the money has actually started being distributed is extremely frustrating … it’s been almost two weeks and whether people have had damage to their homes or not, the cost of losing food, gas for generators, having neighbors over to use power or water for showers, it’s all significant.
Gord McNeilly, another Charlottetown MLA who paid out of his own pocket to bring food to low-income seniors left without power for more than a week, says he believes it’s “not acceptable” that the Red Cross money hasn’t yet started going to people in dire need of help.“Islanders need this money now, they need this money to survive but also to get back on their feet,” he said.
Ordinarily, the Red Cross would have sent in teams of volunteers to help with on-the-ground responses in the communities affected, he said. But a lack of accommodations following the storm due to the number of people displaced in addition to out-of-province electric crews sent to help with power restoration prevented this from happening, he said.
In a statement to Global News, federal Emergency Preparedness Minister Bill Blair’s office said Ottawa established the fund-matching program for Fiona relief because the Canadian Red Cross has experience in coordinating interim housing, clothing, food and other essential supplies for those in need, and has previously supported the government’s response to events like the 2021 flooding in British Columbia and the Fort McMurray wildfires in 2016.
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