Broncos survivors would get $425K each under plan
Committee reveals plan for $15M donations
The committee overseeing nearly $15 million from an online fundraiser for the Humboldt Broncos recommends each survivor receive $425,000, while the families of the people killed in the team bus crash each receive $475,000.
Those payments — which need to be approved by a judge — would come on top of the $50,000 paid to each of the 29 families this summer, meaning the totals are $475,000 for survivors and $525,000 for the families of people who died.
In its report filed Thursday at Saskatoon Court of Queen’s Bench, the five-member committee further recommended that any remaining money be divided equally among the 13 surviving claimants.
“We have considered the logic and fairness of our recommendations by asking two simple questions,” the committee wrote in its 19-page report, which took weeks to prepare.
“First, would any of the 13 survivors and their families trade places with any of the other 16 families in return for any amount of money? Of course, they would not.”
“Second, would any of the 16 families who have lost a loved one forego any amount of money if they could have their sons, daughters or partners back? Of course they would, in a heartbeat.”
The report notes that while a “majority” of the families expressed interest in an equal distribution, all but three acknowledged that “there were other fair, reasonable and acceptable ways the GoFundMe moneys could be allocated.”
The three “entrenched” claimants told the committee that support for equal distribution was “unanimous,” and two suggested that unless the committee recommended that option, “the reputations of individual committee members could be ruined,” the report states.
“Their comments did not influence our recommendations, but they did provide us with insight into the pressure to conform felt by many of the families,” the committee wrote in its report.
According to the report, some families were under intense pressure to conform, with one unnamed claimant stating, “No matter what you say you’re wrong. It’s a really hard position. If you advocate for yourself you go against others.”
In its analysis, the committee said it agrees that the fundraiser was intended to benefit all 29 people on the bus, but noted that dividing it equally among the families wouldn’t necessarily be fair and reasonable.
“There is a huge difference in emotional circumstances between most of the families who lost a loved one and most of the families who did not,” committee members said.
The money is currently controlled by the Humboldt Broncos Memorial Fund Inc., a non-profit set up following the crash, which is represented in court by the law firm MLT Aikins LLP.
An affidavit filed Thursday notes that while a lawyer based in St. Albert, Alta., submitted a petition asking for equal distribution, not all of the signatures could be verified and the non-profit recommended the judge follow the committee’s advice.
The lawyer, Stacy Maurier, declined to comment through a spokeswoman.
Humboldt Broncos Memorial Fund spokeswoman Tammy Robert said neither the non-profit’s board of directors nor the advisory committee would comment on the recommended distribution on Thursday.
MTL Aikins, citing a matter before the court, also declined to comment.
Sixteen people were killed and another 13 were injured when the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League team’s bus collided with a semi trailer north of Tisdale on April 6. The semi driver was uninjured, and now faces multiple dangerous driving charges.
A GoFundMe page set up hours after the crash attracted donations from around 140,000 people and corporations. Not including charges and fees, it raised almost $15 million, believed to be the largest such fundraiser in Canadian history.
This summer, Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Neil Gabrielson approved “urgently” needed payments of $50,000 to each of the 29 families affected by the crash, as well as a plan under which the committee would determine how to disburse the rest.
Gabrielson also ordered that the money cover more than the expenses incurred by each of the families.
In its report, the committee said in its report that it “discontinued” looking into compensation based on expenses, partly because of a paucity of information and partly because the GoFundMe campaign was “never intended to operate as insurance.”
The committee includes hockey player Hayley Wickenheiser; Mark Chipman, chair of Winnipeg Jets owner True North Sports + Entertainment Ltd.; trauma expert Kevin Cameron; retired judge Dennis Ball; and Saskatoon surgeon Peter Spafford.
The distribution process is governed by Saskatchewan’s Informal Public Appeals Act, which has not previously been tested. Gabrielson is expected to consider the committee’s recommendations at a hearing on Nov. 28.