The city and surrounding areas are now officially disaster zones.
The province made the declaration Friday morning stating that the city, Oliver-Paipoonge and Conmee are now eligible for up to $16 million under the Ontario Disaster Relief Assistance Program.
Municipal affairs and housing minister Kathleen Wynne made the announcement outside of St. Peter’s Catholic Church, which quickly became headquarters for relief efforts after the flooding almost two weeks ago.
“This is a preliminary assessment. We only got the number yesterday. This is the number that we think is necessary but it may very well be that it has to be adjusted,” Wynne said. “We only got the numbers yesterday, which was Thursday and I’m here, it’s Friday so I got up here as quickly as I could.”
A relief fund, which the city established and kick-started with $500,000 last Monday, will be matched up to two-to-one with provincial dollars to help private and public recovery efforts.
Money raised by the Red Cross and Salvation Army will also be counted in that fund.
The public component will cover extraordinary costs to the city such as infrastructure damage but not things like salaries. Private funding, for people with damaged homes, will help those uninsured or underinsured but only if the place is a person’s primary residence.
”It’s about the essentials of life and their primary residence and it’s about extraordinary costs,” Wynne said.
Mayor Keith Hobbs called the declaration good news in a bad situation and a great start. Now that the city is considered a disaster area, the province can lobby on behalf of Thunder Bay, Oliver-Paipoonge and Conmee to get federal funding as well. While the municipalities submitted estimates to the province Thursday, Hobbs said the eventual cost will be well above any estimate made.
“Those numbers are not what the real disaster is. We’re probably going to estimate over $100 million when all is said and done and that’s just a rough estimate,” he said.
The relief fund will be taking donations from people and organizations. The city did approve an initial $500,000 but to leverage more funding, the city may need to look at dipping into reserve funds or other possibilities to increase it.
“That could very well be a possibility and that’ something that’s going to have to be discussed at city council,” he said.
NDP leader Andrea Horwath went to the church after the announcement saying she has been in contact with Hobbs and Premier Dalton McGuinty since day one to try and get support in place.
“My job now is to eagle eye the process,” she said. “I think it took a little bit too long to be frank but now that they’re here I don’t want to spend my time criticizing.”
“I’m not here to get in the way but I am here for a simple reason, which is to support the people of Thunder Bay.”
Wynne said various provincial organizations have been in Thunder Bay since the flood and an assessment team was in place to determine the disaster.
“The only way we can determine whether disaster relief is going to be available is if we have the assessment on the ground,” she said.
