The Manitoba government has signed a $30-million contract with the Canadian Red Cross for evacuee support and other services related to this year’s wildfires.
The recently disclosed contract is worth more than half the province’s total annual budget for emergency services and provides a first glimpse into the cost of the Manitoba’s worst wildfire season in at least 30 years.
“We know that we need to continue providing supports to Manitobans who are facing evacuations and are continuing to need support,” Finance Minister Adrien Sala said in an interview Tuesday.
It’s too early to estimate a total cost, Sala said, but an update is expected next month when the province is set to release its quarterly fiscal update.
The Red Cross has been providing shelter and other aid for many of the people who had to flee their homes this year.
The agency has managed large evacuee centres that have at times included a large indoor soccer complex and a section of the main convention centre in Winnipeg.
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Another recently disclosed contract shows the province signed a deal with hotel chain Canad Inns for just over $673,000.
Government officials have called this the worst fire season since daily electronic records began in the mid-1990s. At its peak, some 21,000 Manitobans were out of their communities, with many put up in shelters and hotels. Almost 20,000 square kilometres of land has burned to date — more than double the second-worst season in 2013.
Many evacuees have since returned home, but the province remains under a state of emergency and some communities, including Lynn Lake, Leaf Rapids and Mathias Colomb Cree Nation, are still under mandatory evacuation orders.
In recent years, the NDP government has budgeted $50 million for emergencies — a broad category that also includes costs related to floods and other natural disasters. Premier Wab Kinew recently said he expects this year’s total to be above $50 million.
The former Progressive Conservative government had budgeted $100 million annually and sometimes ended up spending much more. Some $266 million was spent in the 2022-23 fiscal year, when spring flooding and summer forest fires kept emergency workers busy.
Provincial governments can also get some expenses covered through the federal government’s Disaster Financial Assistance Arrangements, or DFAA, program. But the Manitoba government says such aid can be limited.
Each fire is normally counted separately and, in the past, fire damage covered by the program has often not met the minimum threshold for federal cost-sharing, says a slide deck prepared in June by the provincial emergency measures organization.
“Due to the extraordinary nature of this event, Manitoba plans to work with Canada to combine some of the fire events into the same DFAA event, recognizing it will be very difficult to separate the cumulative impacts on communities,” the slide deck reads.
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