THUNDER BAY -- Barbara Hartman says she won’t be having a Christmas this year.
Her holiday plans were put on hold when she heard the news that the assistance for victims of the May flooding disaster wouldn’t be received until February.
She had expected to receive that assistance from the Thunder Bay Disaster Relief Committee by Christmas but the deadline was pushed back from Nov. 30 to Jan. 13.
That means she wouldn’t be receiving any money until at least February.
“Without the assistance of friends and family, I wouldn’t even have a Christmas tree,” Hartman said.
“I believe from the bottom of my heart that if this had happened somewhere else the response and the outcry would have been tremendous. That delay means I don’t get to replace the things I lost. It means that there’s not going to be a Christmas because I haven’t regrouped.”
Since the flood, Hartman has lost many personal items from a handmade quilt to her washer and dryer. She now has what she believes is black mould growing in her basement and has worked hard to try to remove as much of the dirt and grime.
Hartman doesn't have insurance and can’t afford to move.
She described the handling of the situation as frustrating and insulting because there hasn’t been enough communication. She has now lost confidence in the city, although her optimism for its residents has never wavered.
“The citizens of this city have everything to be proud of,” she said. “The Ontario Disaster Relief Assistance Program is laughable. We had a natural disaster here. We’re here seven months later and what has been done? You formed a committee and you’re fundraising. This is a machine that is not working. We’re trying doesn’t cut it.”
Wayne Fletcher, co-chairman of the Thunder Bay and District Disaster Relief Committee, agreed with Hartman that the system doesn’t work as well as it should and said that the committee plans to give recommendations on improvements.
So far, the only money the Disaster Relief Committee has given out was the early advance of $1,000.
The committee intended to have the money ready by Christmas but when they saw the complexity of the claims and further understanding what it meant to apply for funding to the province.
Fletcher said they just couldn’t meet that deadline, adding that the processes has been a big learning curve.
More than 600 claims have been filed and the committee can’t payout until they have them all done.
“We sat down as a committee and said, 'there’s no way we’re going to make this,'” he said.
“Even in January, we’re going to be hard pressed to get all these forms straight. Some of these forms are very complicated and the guidelines are pretty strict on what we have to do and what kind of receipts we have to get from people. We thought we could get it out before Christmas but we realized we wouldn’t be able to.”
He added that they made the announcement of the deadline change to the media. So far, Hartman is the only one who has voiced a complaint that he is aware of.
He said they hope to have all the forms adjudicated by January and hopefully know the total amount that’s being asked for. While he hesitated to give a guess of how much they will need, Fletcher felt that they won’t need $25 million, which was previously estimated.
But the most important difference from the summer is that they are more familiar with the guidelines, he said.
“There’s things like that landlord ruling that didn’t come in until September,”
“Under the guidelines if you have a business you can claim. The question is if you’re a landlord what constitutes as a business. What you have to do is one of two things. If you have a business number then you are a business. But what about the person with one or two houses that rents them out?
"In that case, we want them to show half of their net income is due to the rental properties and will be a business. If you’re a renter then you qualify automatically as long as you don’t have apartment insurance for things.”
