Thunder Bay Mayor Keith Hobbs says the total cost for the city to host the evacuees and act as a transportation hub could be well over a million dollars.
The last of the Sandy Lake First Nation evacuees returned home from Thunder Bay on Tuesday. More than 300 evacuees stayed in the city first at the Victoria Inn Hotel and then at the Travelodge Airlane Hotel. The city paid for food and accommodations for the two-week stay with the promise that the federal government would be covering the cost.
Hobbs said he didn’t expect to have any problems with the cost recovery and already received some reimbursement but wasn’t too sure on the amount.
"We’ve talked to the province and we have an agreement with Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada and everything is supposed to be picked up," Hobbs said on Wednesday. "I’m anticipating that this will cost well over a million dollars when all is said and done. We’re having all the departments, police, fire, EMS and all the agencies giving us their billings and we’ll go from there."
While Thunder Bay stepped up to help, it is the province and federal government’s responsibility to cover any costs. Some of the more expensive costs anticipated are overtime, travel costs and hotels.
Hobbs, along with members of the Thunder Bay Fire and Rescue, met to take down the emergency operation centre. While all the evacuees have returned home, Hobbs said they will stay vigilant incase new fires force others from their homes. The city is still on standby.
Greg Hankkio, deputy fire chief with Thunder Bay Fire and Rescue, said the full cost recovery process will take some time to complete. He said today was the first time that they have been able to sit down and discuss the recovery process since the evacuees returned home.
"Typically overtime costs and any procurement of equipment or any assets are included in the cost recovery process," Hankkio said. "The transit workers put in a lot of work shuttling people back and forth from the hotel to the airport and so forth."
He said they would have a better understand of the total cost in a few weeks.
