To everyone affected by the evacuations, I want to extend my hope that you have made it back home safely and can get back to a normal life as soon as possible. I can only begin to imagine the levels of anxiety and stress you have gone through.
Over the past month, from my relatively safe vantage point here in Inuvik, I’ve witnessed a lot. One thing I saw across the board was the grateful nature of Northerners as they met kindness from citizens across Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and elsewhere. Others heaped praise on the government for covering the costs of their hotel fees and even meals as they weathered the storm.
Indeed, every talking head of the GNWT was eager to rain praise on southern provincial governments for helping Northerners in their time of need.
Which is why I found it rather curious when Finance Minister Caroline Wawzonek mentioned during one of the many press conferences over the past month that the GNWT would have to reimburse those governments for the expenses incurred during the evacuation.
More accurately, what Wawzonek is saying is NWT taxpayers will have to compensate southern taxpayers for the expenses incurred.
If this was handled the way it usually is, hotels which hosted Northerners likely ran receipts for the services rendered, then forwarded them to their provincial government and were reimbursed. That likely falls into business income, which is to say the hotels will pay their governments back a portion of what their governments gave them in income tax next April. Once the GNWT reimburses those governments for those same expenses, provincial governments will potentially get more back than they initially spent.
This isn’t even considering how much money evacuees brought into local economies themselves while in their respective provinces. Generosity’s never paid this well.
Meanwhile, the GNWT, which could not realistically afford to provide adequate services for Northerners before the wildfires, is down to a $5 million surplus — which in government budget terms amounts to a margin of error — and is going to have to pay however much evacuating the majority of the territory cost out to the governments that “generously” hosted evacuees — as opposed to what? Telling them to keep moving on until they reach the United States?
I guess this is what Naomi Klein was referencing when she warned us of the coming ‘Disaster Capitalism’ that would accompany climate change. But more importantly, the money the GNWT sends south in return for this “generosity” is money that isn’t going into high school diplomas in remote communities. It’s money not going into housing in a territory where living conditions are increasingly referred to as “third world.” It’s money not going into programs to help young adults find careers and a place in their communities. It’s money not going into mental health supports or suicide prevention. And this cash flow only moves in one direction. Should communities in Northern Alberta have to evacuate again next year, they’re not coming to Hay River or Yellowknife and the Alberta government isn’t reimbursing the GNWT for its “generosity.” Evacuees will go to Edmonton or Calgary much like Northerners did.
Nor is this remotely sustainable. Every single expert during this disaster agreed runaway climate change was the root cause of the extreme wildfire season — volumes have now been written about the severity of the drought in the Southern Slave and Wood Buffalo regions. Nor have any suggested next year will be any better — we’re being warned forest fires are a regular part of living in the North from here on in. So if another mass evacuation has to happen this decade, will GNWT taxpayers compensate our fellow provincial governments for being nice enough to book hotels on our behalf again?. Chances are our first bill will still be outstanding by then and debts will pile up. How many evacuations can the GNWT afford before it’s perpetually bankrupt? And what happens to Northerners?
If provincial governments are truly “generous” they will write-off the GNWT’s evacuation expenses. The amount of money spent caring for evacuees is a drop in the bucket for multi-billion dollar provincial budgets, but literally could make or break the NWT’s recovery.