Saskatchewan wildfire evacuees facing delays in aid, forced to sleep in cars: ombudsman
Saskatchewan ombudsman Sharon Pratchler says the province's attempts to help those fleeing the devastating wildfires in the north are falling short.
Article content
Her office is hearing from people who are waiting days to hear back about getting food and shelter and some are being forced to sleep in their cars, Pratchler told media Tuesday morning.
Article content
She also said aid money being given to evacuees isn't retroactive to the day they were forced out of their homes.
Article content
Article content
'These are basic human needs and the province is responsible for providing for them without any further delay,' said Pratchler.
Article content
Article content
She joins others who have voiced concerns this week, including evacuees and firefighters' loved ones who spoke Monday on the conditions people are experiencing and called on the province to do better with its emergency response.
Article content
At a news conference in Saskatoon, NDP northern affairs critic Jordan McPhail said evacuees have had issues getting aid through the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency's (SPSA) Emergency and Community Support (ECS) program.
Article content
The NDP and several evacuees said the program is confusing and restrictive. Some have gone days without financial aid, while others were deemed ineligible despite being in hotels because they've been displaced.
Article content
Article content
Opposition critics also questioned once again why the province had not yet called for military support to bolster its response.
Article content
Article content
Minister of Corrections, Policing and Public Safety Tim McLeod said Monday the province is offering all that is available to help residents.
Article content
'We're doing everything possible to provide the resources and the supports that those communities need. Our federal counterparts are offering what they have to give, where that aligns with our needs,' said McLeod, who is also the SPSA's chair.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Toronto Sun
13 hours ago
- Toronto Sun
Letters to the Editor, June 21, 2025
Saturday letters Photo by Illustration / Toronto Sun STILL IN BUSINESS This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account Re Editorial cartoon, May 30: Provinces where the NDP is in power or official opposition: B.C., Manitoba, Alberta, Saskatchewan, N.S. and Ontario. Hardly obsolete! Roger Middlemiss Mississauga (Federally the NDP is pretty much obsolete) CANNOT FIX ANYTHING Re 'Tories urge Grits to pull plug on gas engine ban' (Bryan Passifiume, June 18): I received an email recently that says it all. 'We can't fight homelessness, hunger or poverty but we are going to fight 'climate change.'' Just let that sink in for a moment. Karen Shorter (The Liberals warped priorities will do absolutely nothing to address any of these issues) BAIL REFORM Doug Ford rants and raves about the bail system but he should understand that the system is a shared responsibility between the federal and provincial governments. He would be smart, therefore, to ask Prime Minister Mark Carney for support for bail reform. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Frank Cain North York (It's exactly what Ford needs to do) SPEED AND SAFETY Re 'Speed camera knocked down again' (May 24): If the intention (vociferously denied by Toronto City Hall) of the speed camera on Parkside Drive is to raise revenue, then hire security personnel to be stationed near the camera to monitor, record and report any vandalism of the speed camera. If such personnel were to be paid $40/hour for an average of 10 hours/day (for the dark hours of the day) 365 days a year, that would be an expense of about $438,000 for three years. This would reduce the three-year revenue (as reported for the three-year period April 2022 to April 2025 as $7,253,102) to about $6,815,000 — however, that would be increased for fines levied when the camera would not be down. However, if the often-cited objective of safety is the real objective, relatively high speed bumps about every 100 metres apart would do a much better job. Paul Maginn Toronto (They claim it's for safety, but it's not. Sipped cameras have always been a cash cow) Toronto & GTA World Columnists Toronto & GTA Toronto Blue Jays
Winnipeg Free Press
2 days ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
It doesn't have to be politics as usual
Opinion It usually takes a while for a new administration to slide into political gamesmanship. At first, it's all hearts and flowers and fair play — such as Prime Minister Mark Carney's pledge to call a byelection as quickly as possible to let Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre try to win his way back into Parliament. The byelection in question hasn't been called yet, primarily because there are rules and timelines that have to be followed for a newly elected Conservative to resign to create a space for a byelection. Battle River-Crowfoot MP Damien Kurek officially resigned on Tuesday. Kurek had to wait 30 days after his election was posted in the Canada Gazette before he could resign, the Speaker of the House of Commons has to inform Elections Canada of the vacancy and the earliest a byelection call could come is 11 days after that. JOHN WOODS / FREE PRESs fileS Premier Wab Kinew The Governor General sets the byelection day chosen by Carney, who can pick a date as far as 180 days after Kurek's resignation. If Carney lives up to his word, Poilievre can quickly either be back in Parliament after a win, or leave the Opposition leader's official Ottawa residence and no longer be the Stornoway stowaway. But byelections don't always move that quickly — and a case in point is happening here in Manitoba. Back in late March, Progressive Conservative MLA Grant Jackson resigned his Spruce Woods seat to run in the federal election under the Conservative banner. Ever since then, his seat has sat vacant — meaning that, for 88 days now, his former constituents haven't had a representative in the Legislature. That's a point that's been made directly to Premier Wab Kinew in a letter from PC Leader Obby Khan: 'Summer is an important time in rural constituencies full of fairs, festivals and events and whomever should be elected to represent Spruce Woods deserves this opportunity to engage with their constituents,' Khan wrote. Likewise, constituents deserve the opportunity to make their concerns known to their elected representative. There's not much drama involved with a byelection in Spruce Woods. It's a reliably PC seat — since its creation in 2011, it has always elected Progressive Conservatives — and the governing NDP is comfortably in a majority position and doesn't have to pull out all the stops to try to win there. Kinew has moved more quickly on two other byelections — to fill the seats left vacant by the resignation of former PC premier Heather Stefanson and the death of NDP cabinet member Nello Altomare. Both of those seats — Tuxedo and Transcona and were seen as likely to elect NDP candidates and both did. And that brings the political gamesmanship back into play. Wednesdays Columnist Jen Zoratti looks at what's next in arts, life and pop culture. Kinew could choose to delay the Spruce Woods byelection until as late as Sept. 24 — and it's entirely within his purview to do exactly that. But just because you can do something, doesn't always mean that you should. The only real questions are who benefits by delaying the byelection, and who loses out? If, in any way, it's voters who are losing out, the answer is a simple one. Set a byelection date as quickly as possible and leave the political strategy by the wayside. A significant portion of the public already believes that politicians don't have their best interests at heart and petty politics just strengthens the impression that politicians put their parties and their own futures ahead of the public good. Why fuel voter apathy and mistrust — especially in the case of Spruce Woods, where the prospective gains seem so small — when there's a chance to take the high road instead?
Vancouver Sun
2 days ago
- Vancouver Sun
After B.C. Conservative leader made claim of MLA blackmailers in his own party, NDP asked RCMP to investigate
The chair of British Columbia's NDP caucus has written to the RCMP requesting an investigation into allegations that former members of the B.C. Conservative Opposition tried to blackmail their ex-colleagues. The letter from Stephanie Higginson to Deputy Commissioner Dwayne McDonald comes after B.C. Conservative Leader John Rustad wrote to his party's own caucus warning about the alleged blackmail by three MLAs and their staff. On Monday, Rustad confirmed that he wrote a letter obtained by The Canadian Press in which he tells his caucus that their former colleagues and staff were threatening to release 'blackmail materials,' including secretly recorded phone conversations and text messages. Start your day with a roundup of B.C.-focused news and opinion. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Sunrise will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. One of the former party members said Thursday that he welcomed a police investigation, saying Rustad made the blackmail allegations to 'distract and change the conversation' about how his leadership was reconfirmed at the annual general meeting of the party. Independent Jordan Kealy said he had already asked for an audit of the leadership review. 'Maybe the Conservative Party, if they've got nothing to hide, will then open their books and actually show to their constituents, voters and members, that they're telling the truth,' Kealy said in an interview. Another of the former Conservatives, Dallas Brodie, said on social media platform X that Rustad had 'painted himself into a corner' with a 'big lie' about blackmail that he could not substantiate. Higginson said in the open letter written on behalf of the NDP caucus that there's a significant public interest in determining the facts. She said if any MLA or their staff are engaged in blackmail, British Columbians deserve to know, and perpetrators should be prosecuted. Rustad said in an interview on Monday that he did not personally have recorded evidence of blackmail, but would not say if the party possessed it. 'As I said earlier, I am not sure what has been provided to our legal staff around it. I don't personally have it,' he said. Asked if Rustad was available for an interview on Thursday, the B.C. Conservative Party said it had received advice not to comment further on the matter. Higginson said British Columbians deserved to know whether Rustad has any evidence to support his accusations. 'Given the accusations of criminal activity, it seems appropriate for police to examine any relevant information in Mr. Rustad's possession to determine if additional investigation and/or criminal charges are necessary,' Higginson wrote. Premier David Eby said earlier this week after learning of the blackmail allegations that Rustad needed to take the claims to police, and if he didn't, then the NDP would. 'It is a profound and serious allegation that also strikes at the core of this place behind me and the public's confidence in the fact that legislators and staff members need to be able to do their work for the people without interference,' Eby said during a news conference outside the legislature on Tuesday. Tim Thielmann is the chief of staff for the new One BC party formed by Brodie and Tara Armstrong, who is the third ex-Conservative MLA. He blamed Eby for the NDP calling in the police, saying it was 'extremely irresponsible.' 'By his own admission, he is relying upon John Rustad's claims of blackmail, and when John Rustad has been asked for evidence, he has been unable to provide a single shred,' said Thielmann. He called the accusations in Rustad's letter to the Conservative caucus 'desperate lies' that he 'invented' to attack people exposing what happened at the party's annual general meeting. He said the case could 'cross the threshold for public mischief.' Brodie made the same argument in her social media post. 'If Rustad asks for a police investigation knowing his allegations are false, he might himself be committing the crime of public mischief under section 140 of the Criminal Code,' she said. 'But if he doesn't, he will have exposed his own big lie. 'And as for David Eby, he should know better than to attempt to instigate a police investigation when he admits to having absolutely no evidence of any wrongdoing.' Brodie was thrown out of the B.C. Conservatives over remarks about residential schools, prompting Armstrong and Kealy to quit the party in sympathy. Kealy, who is not a member of the new One BC party, said Thursday that he was 'completely fine' with the RCMP being called to investigate. 'I've got nothing to hide if they want to talk to me,' said Kealy. 'I have chosen to leave it to people that are in the position to properly investigate this thoroughly and to look into whether or not they're allegations being made falsely,' said Kealy. Armstrong said on social media on Wednesday that 'Rustad and Eby can throw around the accusations all they like but rest assured, the truth will always prevail.' Brodie has said Rustad and his team 'rigged' the Conservatives' March annual general meeting that endorsed his 'Team Rustad' slate of executive candidates, allegedly stacking the meeting with South Asian supporters paid 'to vote the way Mr. Rustad wanted.' Rustad's letter denied any wrongdoing at the meeting. — With additional reporting from Wolfgang Depner in Victoria Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark and sign up for our politics newsletter, First Reading, here .
