RED CROSS PUTTING CASH TOWARD RELIEF
More than 91,000 register for assistance
Millions of dollars raised since the June 20 flood will be spent aiding flood-affected Albertans and not poured into a general “slush fund,” says the director of disaster management for the Canadian Red Cross.
The organization has, to date, raised more than $25 million in cash and in-kind donations for emergency relief and long-term recovery efforts, John Byrne told reporters Thursday in Calgary.
An internal trust fund has been created to hold those funds, and will be earmarked for ongoing relief and recovery measures for flood-affected Albertans, said Byrne.
“All monies received in and all monies out come through that fund,” Byrne said. “Any interest that’s gained on that goes back into that fund and used for that. No money is used out of that fund for the Red Cross.”
Just over $3 million in cash and another $2.5 million in inkind donations has been spent on early relief measures.
Another $6.5 million will be spent during the early recovery phase, leaving roughly $13 million for the long-term recovery stage, said Byrne.
The scale of the Alberta flood was “by far the largest geographical natural disas- ter” in Canada that the Red Cross has ever had to deal with, Byrne said.
“In this case, we aren’t going to have any problems spending $25 million,” he said.
“As a matter of fact, we could do with another $25 million and it still would be used.”
In the early days of the disaster, the Red Cross focused primarily on providing safe shelter and distributing food and cleanup kits and supplies to flood victims.
Now, one month later, the organization will transition to long-term recovery, which will include providing financial assistance for essential items, such as clothing and household goods, as well as help people struggling to meet rent or mortgage pay- ments, said Byrne.
“Caseworkers will be working one-on-one with families to assist with the recovery process and help with emergency medical needs and assist those who need help registering for other assistance programs,” he said.
Financial assistance will be approved on a case-by-case basis to flood-affected Albertans with “verified, disaster-caused needs,” Byrne said.
That verification process is, essentially, an honour-based system, he conceded.
“We ask those people to identify their needs … and we would hope at that point that they would self-exclude if they didn’t need anything,” said Byrne, adding “less than one per cent” tend to abuse the system.
Byrne said 95 per cent of the trust fund will be spent helping Albertans and that a third-party audit of the fund will be released in September.
More than 91,000 people have registered for assistance with the Red Cross.
High River and First Nations communities were hit the hardest and will likely need the most assistance, said Byrne.
“Often the people who need it the most are the last to come,” he said. “They will try to survive as best they can before they actually say, ‘I need to ask for support.’ ”
Albertans affected by the flood are asked to contact the Red Cross.