Outgoing premier Christy Clark arrived in Kamloops on Sunday to announce a $100-million funding package for victims of the wildfires raging across much of the province of British Columbia.
Speaking outside the Thompson-Nicola Regional District offices on Sunday afternoon, Clark said the funding will be available immediately via the Canadian Red Cross. The funds will be used for support services for evacuees like those established at Thompson Rivers University.
“This program is modelled after the program that Alberta deployed in the case of Fort McMurray,” Clark told reporters.
“That money will be there to support people. Gosh, people really need it. We are, in many ways, just at the beginning of the worst part of the fire season.
“We watch the weather, we watch the wind and we pray for rain, but out prayer’s aren’t always answered in these things, so we need to be there to support people in the meantime because there are hundreds and hundreds of people who are scared to death right now.”
The funding will also include $600 each for registered evacuees, which can be immediately deposited via electronic transfer into bank accounts, in order to ease their burdens in the short-term.
Long-term, Clark said she hopes the money will also be made available to local governments, in order to restore parks, public art, infrastructure and other damage falling outside the scope of the province.
Earlier Sunday, Clark toured the Emergency Operations Centre and spoke to evacuees. She praised staff working throughout the province, some of whom are working 30-hour shifts and have already put in 70 days of work because of flooding. They are now looking at the prospect of another 60 days of work for the wildfire season.
“It’s just an unbelievable, heroic effort on the part of these people who serve us every day in our public service,” Clark said.
“I can’t tell you how proud I am of the work that they do in these communities, but also how much we all grieve with people who are worried about their homes, worried about their pets, worried about their loved ones and the life-long possessions, people who have lost their homes.
“It’s a tragic, alarming, frightening event for so many hundreds of people who are finding their way to the evacuation centre.”
Premier-designate John Horgan also spoke outside the TNRD building.