The federal government has committed 300-million dollars in disaster recovery funds to Fort McMurray. The amount is based on a preliminary audit of the damage done by the wildfire.
“This is the payment thus far,” says Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale. “We fully expect that there will be additional obligations, but we wanted to get this amount of money into the hands of Albertans as quickly as possible.”
Alberta Municipal Affairs Minister Danielle Larivee has revealed for the first time that the initial firefighting cost is estimated at 615-million dollars. Veterans Affairs Minister Kent Hehr says these funds are an advance on the disaster assistance agreement between provinces and Ottawa.
“This is the quickest turnaround ever getting money out the door to support the rebuild of a community that has been affected in the way that Fort McMurray has.”
Hehr says the feds are also providing $90 million to start matching donations made by people across the country to the Red Cross. The provincial government is matching donations by Albertans to the tune of $30 million.
The funding announcements came after a meeting between federal and provincial ministers in Edmonton.