Wildfire Evacuations

[ExFlyer]

I have relatives in Yellowknife. They were ordered to evacuate.  We have our grand daughter with us but the Mom and Dad had to stay because they are essential.

It cost a fortune to get her out to us. (one way ticket because we don't know how long the evacuation remains in effect)

I also have relatives in Kelowna and they were told to evacuate too. 5 in that family. They went to Vancouver. Took their truck and trailer.

My question is, who pays for the evacuation expenses? The gas, meals etc. The airplane ticket. The hotels and meals and expenses for others.

Not sure whether this falls under federal emergencies stuff or provincial or even municipal.

 

EDIT:

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/n-w-t-premier-says-230333036.html

Edited August 21, 2023 by ExFlyer
Added news clip

[Aristides]

Being a territory, I assume the feds would be on the hook for any government assistance.

[herbie]

We had to evacuate a couple years back/ The Province paid all kinds of assistance, found us pet friendly motels, local volunteers told us best places to eat, arranged things to see & do for evacuees.
the wife's dog biter employer made her use vacation days so afterone weekend we said thanks, we're forced onto vacation so we;ll treat it as one and didn't take any more handouts. We evacuated to the North coast where the ocean wind kept smoke away as the suggested site was even smokier than it was at home. Never did claim gas expenses.
Memorable as we spent a few days in soggy rundown Prince Rupert. Boy has that place become a shit hole since the last visit 30 years ago.

[herbie]

I guess one good thing was it was a couple week emergency, people were great. It didn't drag on for years like Covid and turn everyone into miserable arseholes

[CdnFox]

5 hours ago, ExFlyer said:

I have relatives in Yellowknife. They were ordered to evacuate.  We have our grand daughter with us but the Mom and Dad had to stay because they are essential.

It cost a fortune to get her out to us. (one way ticket because we don't know how long the evacuation remains in effect)

I also have relatives in Kelowna and they were told to evacuate too. 5 in that family. They went to Vancouver. Took their truck and trailer.

My question is, who pays for the evacuation expenses? The gas, meals etc. The airplane ticket. The hotels and meals and expenses for others.

Not sure whether this falls under federal emergencies stuff or provincial or even municipal.

 

EDIT:

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/n-w-t-premier-says-230333036.html

I believe provinces and territories take it case by case and announce relief packages as necessary.  But as far as the territories go, i doubt they can afford anything without the feds stepping up.  And they're only worth one seat.

The feds are probably watching to see if they're going to have to be pressured into giving any of the other provinces money and see how big that bill will be. They're under a lot of pressure to cut spending and if they have to put out billions for fires that'll put some of their favorite programs on the chopping block.

[ExFlyer]

39 minutes ago, CdnFox said:

I believe provinces and territories take it case by case and announce relief packages as necessary.  But as far as the territories go, i doubt they can afford anything without the feds stepping up.  And they're only worth one seat.

The feds are probably watching to see if they're going to have to be pressured into giving any of the other provinces money and see how big that bill will be. They're under a lot of pressure to cut spending and if they have to put out billions for fires that'll put some of their favorite programs on the chopping block.

If the authorities force you to leave, I think they should foot the bill.

An interesting thing in Yellowknife is that all the homeless/vagrants and street people were given free rides to Edmonton. Calgary and Vancouver. They closed down all facilities and the RCMP rounded them all up so they had no choice but to go.

The other thing is they closed the hospital and the Military Hercs and C141 flew the patients to Vancouver (which moved them all over the health district), Edmonton and Winnipeg. Hope the Military brings them back.

[ExFlyer]

1 hour ago, herbie said:

We had to evacuate a couple years back/ The Province paid all kinds of assistance, found us pet friendly motels, local volunteers told us best places to eat, arranged things to see & do for evacuees.
the wife's dog biter employer made her use vacation days so afterone weekend we said thanks, we're forced onto vacation so we;ll treat it as one and didn't take any more handouts. We evacuated to the North coast where the ocean wind kept smoke away as the suggested site was even smokier than it was at home. Never did claim gas expenses.
Memorable as we spent a few days in soggy rundown Prince Rupert. Boy has that place become a shit hole since the last visit 30 years ago.

Glad to hear there was funding for the evacuees.

Prince Rupert was a shithole many decades ago when I was flying up and down the West Coast LOL

 

[CdnFox]

6 minutes ago, ExFlyer said:

If the authorities force you to leave, I think they should foot the bill.

Doesn't seem unreasonable.

Quote

An interesting thing in Yellowknife is that all the homeless/vagrants and street people were given free rides to Edmonton. Calgary and Vancouver.

Thank god - we didn't have enough yet! *sigh.*

Quote

The other thing is they closed the hospital and the Military Hercs and C141 flew the patients to Vancouver (which moved them all over the health district), Edmonton and Winnipeg. Hope the Military brings them back.

That's interesting.  I didn't know the military got involved like that.  I guess it makes sense.  I guarantee the military won't be bringing them back but it's possible the provinces will pay for a bus ticket or the like when they're better, or arrange for full transport if they're  unable to travel like that.

[OftenWrong]

Are these evacuations truly necessary, or is this just more of the over-the-top reaction about the climate apocalypse coming from our government?

[Guest]

21 minutes ago, OftenWrong said:

Are these evacuations truly necessary, or is this just more of the over-the-top reaction about the climate apocalypse coming from our government?

 You think they should stick around like those folks in Hawaii?

??

We were evacuated three times earlier this year.  The fires ended up only coming to just within 1km of our home, but it didn't have to be that way.  Capricious winds.

Over the top my arse.

Edited August 22, 2023 by bcsapper

[herbie]

FFS what next complain about your Freedumb to remain and get cooked?
Never seen a major forest fire? You get the f*ck away if they say so, the 2018 one in the Cariboo came within 150m of our cabin. hey booted my sister out the day before.
The same year they stopped it less than 1km from the edge of a subdivision here. We left because of the smoke, no shit you couldn't see two doors down.

[Guest]

On the issue of government payment of expenses, I can say the Alberta government came through when we were evacuated three times earlier this year.  $1250/adult, $500/child.

 

Edited August 22, 2023 by bcsapper

[OftenWrong]

18 minutes ago, bcsapper said:

 You think they should stick around like those folks in Hawaii?

??

We were evacuated three times earlier this year.  The fires ended up only coming to just within 1km of our home, but it didn't have to be that way.  Capricious winds.

Over the top my arse.

You live in Yellowknife now, do you? I thought you were a total wuss when it came to misquitos, and shit.

[Aristides]

34 minutes ago, OftenWrong said:

Are these evacuations truly necessary, or is this just more of the over-the-top reaction about the climate apocalypse coming from our government?

The West Kelowna fire jumped Okanagan Lake. The Trans Canada crossed by fires on the Thompson and two places in the Fraser Canyon. You might want to rethink what is over the top.

Edited August 22, 2023 by Aristides

[OftenWrong]

Just now, Aristides said:

You might want to rethink what is over the top.

Evidently you people certainly have. 

I knew about forest fires already a long time ago, so they can't pull a fast one on me...

[Guest]

5 minutes ago, OftenWrong said:

You live in Yellowknife now, do you? I thought you were a total wuss when it came to misquitos, and shit.

Central Alberta.  Still evacuated three times (twice from our home, once from where were living during the second home evacuation)

The mosquitos are bad right now, but not as bad as being burned.

[Aristides]

4 minutes ago, OftenWrong said:

Evidently you people certainly have. 

I knew about forest fires already a long time ago, so they can't pull a fast one on me...

I spent years flying back and forth across the Rockies during the eighties and nineties. There are always fires during the summer and one offs like the Barriere and Kelowna fires but nothing remotely like what we are experiencing this year.

Edited August 22, 2023 by Aristides

[Guest]

4 minutes ago, OftenWrong said:

Evidently you people certainly have. 

I knew about forest fires already a long time ago, so they can't pull a fast one on me...

I've never known anyone to openly publicize that they were going to try for a Darwin Award...

[OftenWrong]

3 minutes ago, Aristides said:

I spent years flying back and forth across the Rockies during the eighties and nineties. There are always fires during the summer and one offs like the Barriere and Kelowna fires but nothing remotely like what we are experiencing this year.

The number of forest fires per year is about the same for 2023, at least so far, but the amount of land area that's been burned is greater.

Doesn't mean we should all just shrug and say 'oh well, it's because of global warming what else can you do.' There may be more to it than that. Maybe there is more we can do, than just keep on blaming the global warming bogeyman.

[Aristides]

We just had a long shoreman strike that shut down the Port of Vancouver, now the rail links between Vancouver and the ROC have been severed by fires in at least three places.

[OftenWrong]

5 minutes ago, bcsapper said:

I've never known anyone to openly publicize that they were going to try for a Darwin Award...

There there fella, not to worry.

I will not take your bogeyman away from you.

[Aristides]

1 minute ago, OftenWrong said:

The number of forest fires per year is about the same for 2023, at least so far, but the amount of land area that's been burned is greater.

Doesn't mean we should all just shrug and say 'oh well, it's because of global warming what else can you do.' There may be more to it than that. Maybe there is more we can do, than just keep on blaming the global warming bogeyman.

We can do more to protect our towns and structures but we can't rake almost a million sq km of forest like Drumpf suggested.

[Aristides]

These fires are also burning on top of the buried Trans Mountain pipeline but fortunately it isn't threatened at this time.

[eyeball]

16 hours ago, OftenWrong said:

The number of forest fires per year is about the same for 2023, at least so far, but the amount of land area that's been burned is greater.

Doesn't mean we should all just shrug and say 'oh well, it's because of global warming what else can you do.' 

Only 11% of Canadians, who also happen to be a quarter of Conservative supporters, are shrugging this off.

https://angusreid.org/canada-record-wildfires-smoke-climate-change/

Another group of one-in-nine Canadians (11%) – including one-quarter of past Conservative voters (24%) – say that nothing needs to be done and the situation is fine as it is.

The usual deplorables in other words and the big winners when it comes to climate inaction. For their part it's a shame most of the so called moderate CINO's were happy to go along with things which gave weight to the doubt that's been at the heart of inaction - whether it was based on outright denial or hesitancy the result has been the same.

btw, in most cases wildfires are caused either by people or lightning. Some people make it sound like climate 'alarmists' are saying forests burst into flames on contact with climate change. Climate change has simply made things worse is all.

16 hours ago, OftenWrong said:

There may be more to it than that. Maybe there is more we can do, than just keep on blaming the global warming bogeyman.

Of course there's more to it but I think you're looking at it backwards. Climate change is causing things like the effects of decades of poor forest management to be worse. Just like climate change has caused poor management water resources to make agriculture more difficult and increasingly impossible in cases.

In any case I'm in the 10% of Canadians who think things are hopeless no matter what we do. I blame the success of the deplorables in causing governments and industry to go in the direction they always wanted things to go. They were probably also instrumental in much of the poor  management that was practiced in the past - forever preaching economic alarmism if we made things, especially governments, subject to better oversight.

Yup, deplorables and governments go together like peas and carrots in their own peculiar way.

Edited August 22, 2023 by eyeball

[herbie]

17 hours ago, OftenWrong said:

I knew about forest fires already a long time ago, so they can't pull a fast one on me...

You remind me of my dog. He always looks at you as if there's an ulterior motive behind handing him a treat. A conspiracy behind everything,