‘Numerous’ NWT residents still waiting for evacuation funding

Months after evacuating from and returning to Yellowknife, James – not his real name – says he still has not received promised financial support.

Like many Yellowknifers, when the city was ordered to evacuate in August due to nearby wildfire, James headed to Alberta. He said he lost two weeks of work because of the evacuation.

On September 19, James applied for funding from the territory’s evacuee income disruption support program.

Nearly five months later, he said he still hasn’t received the promised one-time payment of $750 – and getting answers from the territorial government has been difficult.

“It’s like I’m phoning into a void,” he said.

“This has turned into a principle of the thing.”

James shared notes with Cabin Radio detailing numerous calls and emails he made to a designated contact for the funding program between October 8 and February 2, asking about the status of his application. Many of those messages went unanswered.

When he was able to reach someone in early November, James said he was told there were no issues with his application and that he should receive the money within a week. After following up, he said he was told the same thing in the first week of January.

“I’m a fairly competent person when dealing with government and agencies and stuff like that,” he said. “It’s quite frustrating. I can only imagine what it’s like for somebody who’s not as patient or tenacious as I am.”

James said he’s concerned he could receive a tax form for a $750 payment he hasn’t received. He also questions what will happen in future evacuations, given the challenges he has faced trying to access financial support.

He’s not alone. Robert Hawkins, the MLA for Yellowknife Centre, told the legislature on Tuesday that multiple NWT residents have faced issues receiving evacuation-related funding. Other MLAs nodded in agreement.

“I’m getting numerous e-mails and calls regarding the evacuation travel support program and the fact that people have applied two, three, four months ago and still haven’t received payments,” he said.

Finance minister Caroline Wawzonek acknowledged there are “quite a number of payments that have been missed.” She said her department was working through inquiries.

“This was a program that we started up quite at the last minute in the midst of the evacuations,” she said.

“We were faced with an unprecedented situation, and we’re doing our best to try to create a program to support individual residents in the midst of our own staff having been evacuated in most cases.”

Wawzonek said payments hadn’t happened for a variety of reasons, including banking information being incorrectly provided or entered. She added some payments have been returned by banks and some cheques didn’t make it through the mail.

The minister encouraged people still facing challenges to reach out online or talk to their MLA.

“The ones that have come to me do get resolved and generally get resolved quite quickly,” she said.

“It shouldn’t be taking this long. I hope it doesn’t.”

Wawzonek said her department is looking to change the system to prevent future delays to financial relief if residents are evacuated.

The territorial government launched its evacuation travel assistance fund in late August, when nearly a dozen communities were under evacuation orders, to help residents meet the cost of fleeing their homes.

The fund offered a one-time payment of $750 per vehicle for residents who evacuated by road south of the territory, or $400 to those who evacuated elsewhere in the NWT.

Financial travel assistance was not offered to those who evacuated on commercial flights. People who received financial support to offset evacuation travel expenses from their employer, insurance or other sources were also ineligible for the fund.

The fund’s application window for the 2023 wildfire season has now closed.

The territory had earlier launched an evacuee income disruption support program in May, offering residents a separate one-time payment of $750 if they lost income due to an evacuation order lasting at least a week.

In September, the territory changed the criteria for that program so people could apply even if they had received some financial assistance from their employer.