Maureen and Greg McBratney didn’t have many options for places to stay when wildfire forced them to leave their home in Denare Beach, Sask., late last week.
Maureen, 65, has kidney failure and usually receives dialysis three times a week across the border in Flin Flon, Man., but that city has also been evacuated due to an out-of-control fire very close to the community.
A dialysis co-ordinator told Maureen to go to Yorkton to continue her treatment, but the retired couple is on a fixed income and struggled to find an affordable hotel.
“We’re staying at a hotel right now because we don’t know anyone in Yorkton,” Greg said. “We’ve tried to contact Red Cross and our house insurance [to pay for a hotel].”
They’re worried about where they’ll go next.
“We have nowhere to go after Friday. We’re getting kicked out of the hotel because they’re fully booked,” Greg said.
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The couple doesn’t expect to go home any time soon. Maureen cries when she thinks about the financial and emotional strain.
“If you know anyone in Yorkton who wants to put up with a couple of old people for awhile, let us know.”
The Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency (SPSA) and other organizations are searching far and wide to identify any hotel space that could accept evacuees, SPSA vice-president of operations Steve Roberts said.
“Anywhere from Prince Albert to Weyburn and from North Battleford to Hudson Bay,” Roberts said during the SPSA daily wildfire update.
“Basically, we’re canvassing every community in Saskatchewan for their capacity and as evacuees come out, they will be directed to areas where they can be housed until they can return home.”
On Monday, a group of evacuees from Denare Beach and Creighton who ended up in Saskatoon held a protest in the city, demanding more resources to fight fires and help evacuees. They hoped to get the attention of Prime Minister Mark Carney and the premiers while they’re in Saskatoon for the first ministers’ meeting.
There were about 8,000 evacuees from Saskatchewan communities as of Monday afternoon, according to the SPSA.
Where evacuees end up depends on where they come from. The SPSA manages some, as does the Canadian Red Cross, while some First Nations also manage accommodations for evacuees from their communities.
Added pressure comes when evacuee stays push into reservations made by sports teams or other large groups, leaving hotels a choice between kicking out evacuees or reneging on reservations.
It’s up to hotel management to decide who gets bumped, according to tourism trade group Hospitality Saskatchewan.
“In both cases, you’re dealing with folks that are displaced for whatever reason, whether it’s an evacuation or a family that’s traveled 100 miles to get to a ball tournament and they don’t have a place to stay,” said Jim Bence, Hospitality Saskatchewan president and CEO.
“It’s a real ethical dilemma in many cases. And it’s one that, whether you’re a front desk agent or a hotel manager, it’s a struggle to make those decisions.”
Finding accommodations yet another hurdle for wildfire evacuees
Bence said the province should create a central reservation system to manage hotel inventory during emergency situations.
“The technology already exists,” Bence said. “It’s just how could we adapt it or enhance it so that governments or the Red Cross would be able to at a moment’s notice be able to see, OK, I’ve got 10 rooms available in Warman. I’ve got 30 rooms available in Saskatoon.… If we could access everybody’s inventory in real time, then you could make those decisions.”
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