“People are fleeing fires with little more than the clothes on their backs and instead of stepping up, Scott Moe and the Sask. Party are nowhere to be seen,” said Jordan McPhail, MLA for Cumberland. “The federal government has made it clear the military can be on the ground within 24 hours. But Premier Moe still hasn’t picked up the phone. Why?”
McPhail noted that military personnel could have helped with firefighting, evacuations, transportation, humanitarian efforts, and emergency communications — just as they’ve done in Manitoba and Ontario and in previous wildfire seasons in Saskatchewan.
“When lives and homes are on the line, we shouldn’t be leaving any help on the table,” McPhail added.
Sheri Parr’s husband is a volunteer firefighter and has been working around the clock in Creighton to protect the community. She believes the military should have been called in weeks ago.
“My husband and the entire fire crew have been sleeping on dirt roads, on concrete floors and on lawn chairs in the fire hall because they’re all so exhausted,” she said. “I don’t understand why we wouldn’t take the offer of more help.”
Rhonda Werbicki’s family home of 26 years burned to the ground at Denare Beach. She believes the military should have been called in and the fire should have been addressed weeks before it reached her community. Even now, Werbicki said, the Sask. Party doesn’t seem to have learned from mistakes at the outset of this crisis.
“I’m very disappointed in a government that I voted for and I had faith in,” she said. “I feel like, because we’re the North, we’re ignored. We’re hardworking people, we love our community and I just feel like we’ve been forgotten.
“There needs to be more resources for this crisis and into the future. We need help. We need Scott Moe to take this seriously. This is devastation — we’ve lost our homes, for crying out loud.”
Linda Lowe also lost her family home of 31 years in the community.
“Do you see that smoking hole in the ground where our home was for 31 years?” she questioned to the Sask. Party. “How many more families have to lose their homes or do fatalities have to occur before we are given the help we need to fight these fires and get some financial aid?
“Scott Moe showed a significant lapse in judgment relating to the urgency of resources needed in the north and he still is — Denare Beach was ignored completely,” Lowe added.
As fires continue to burn across the North, evacuees are reporting major gaps in the government’s Emergency and Community Support (ECS) program. Many say they’ve gone days without support, that aid is tied to limited grocery store locations, and that some displaced families — including those in hotels — have been deemed ineligible for help.
“The ECS program is confusing, restrictive, and, contrary to what the Sask. Party says, is not actually up and running yet for many evacuees,” said McPhail. “There’s no reason why we can’t have an accessible and straightforward aid program like we see in neighbouring Manitoba and Alberta.
“Evacuees shouldn’t have to choose between diapers and dinner while they wait for the government to get their act together.”
Moira Pinnell Davis fled from Creighton nearly two weeks ago. She still hasn’t seen a dime of financial aid from the government and continues to get the runaround. She’s in Saskatoon currently and has spoken to evacuees in the city from Manitoba who have received their support from government through e-transfer.
“That just makes sense but we have no such thing here in Saskatchewan,” she said. “People need that money for food, for hotel rooms they paid for days ago and people are being treated like babies or toddlers, like the government doesn’t trust us to spend the money properly.
“Let’s face it, Scott Moe is clueless in all of this.”
Phone or on-camera interviews can be arranged with all evacuees quoted in this release.
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