The head of the city’s disaster relief committee says he’s not concerned a looming $500-million lawsuit targeting Thunder Bay and the province will have a negative effect on their ability to raise money.
Disaster relief committee chairman Wayne Fletcher on Thursday said they’ve discussed the lawsuit’s potential impact on their donation campaign, which has set a $1.6-million target, money that will then be doubled by the province.
“It’s awful hard to gauge on whether or not that’s going to have an impact,” Fletcher said. “In our mind, that’s a separate issue and that’s what they’re dealing with and we can’t really think about that. We’re just going to help out the people that need help.
“I hope the people understand. In the meetings that we had last Saturday there were some very heartfelt stories from the people and what they’re suffering from.”
More than 3,000 homes are believed to have been affected by flooding and sewage back-ups in their basement, the result of a heavy rainfall that doused Thunder Bay on May 28. The class-action lawsuit, led by lawyers Christopher Watkins and Sandy Zaitzeff, alleges the city and province new about the potential for disaster, but failed to do enough to prevent it from happening. It has yet to be certified.
On the weekend the city started the damage-claim process for those without insurance, starting with an application for a $1,000 advance to cover repairs.
“I hope that people look beyond (the lawsuit) and realize there are people in definite need and we’re here to help them.”
But the sentiment is out there in some corners, Fletcher admitted, noting there are also plenty of people questioning why those who had insurance can’t make claims through the Ontario Disaster Relief Assistance Program.
Fletcher said people shouldn’t look at this like they’re being penalized, and hopes people can find compassion for those even less fortunate than themselves.
“For some it’s not about responsibility, it’s about their ability,” he said. “They may not have had the ability to get insurance. Or maybe it wasn’t available. So I think what we need to do is look beyond that. To me, frankly, that’s kind of petty.”
The question of abuse of the system has also come up, Fletcher added.
Not to worry, he said, there are plenty of checks and balances in place to ensure no one is getting more than they deserve.
“For the greater good, the abuse part is going to be small. We’re going to have processes where we’re going to check claims. We’re going to go through that, make sure people aren’t trying to double dip, to make sure we get the maximum amount of money to people who are in need. That’s what we’re focused on,” said Fletcher.
On Thursday the committee got good news, when both the Salvation Army and Red Cross agreed to turn over $660,000 raised for flood relief to the DRC, money the province will triple through its matching funds program.
The Salvation Army’s Mervyn Halvorsen said turning over the money is a no-brainer.
“We’re going to be able to transfer it over to the disaster relief committee so that they can meet the requirement for the two-for-one from the province,” said Halvorsen, whose organization has collected $360,000 to date.
Fetcher said the DRC will be out in full force at summer events, starting with Canada Day celebrations this weekend at Prince Arthur’s Landing.
“We’ll have a tent so that people can give. We’ll be at the Blues Festival and we’ll be at Summer in the Parks on Wednesday nights. We’re getting a hold of different groups, so for instance, Westfort Days, fairs. Throughout the summer we’ll be doing that,” Fletcher said.
“We’ll also starting to organize and looking at individual asks from corporations and possible larger donors. And there will probably be a secondary push in September because we know July in August are sometimes tough months to raise money.”
