A woman walks through the debris of her work place, Pembina River Tubing, in Entwistle, Alta., on May 9.ANNE-SOPHIE THILL/AFP/Getty Images
Danielle Smith, the leader of the United Conservative Party, said she would consider providing government relief payments to wildfire evacuees who were displaced fewer than seven days, lowering the eligibility threshold to cover thousands of Albertans who have already returned home.
Alberta on Tuesday said there are about 24,000 evacuees in the province, down from the peak of about 29,000. Rain and cooler temperatures brought relief to some parts of the province, but because the wildfires are spread out over much of Alberta’s north and west-central regions, the crisis continues in many communities. There were 88 wildfires in Alberta Tuesday afternoon, with 24 of those burning out of control.
Ms. Smith must manage this crisis while also campaigning in the provincial election, slated for May 29. On Tuesday, these competing demands prompted her to provide further explanation for why she compared people who got the coronavirus vaccine to Nazi supporters, while promising that a re-elected UCP would use ankle bracelets to monitor dangerous offenders who are free on bail.
She also said she is open to changing the terms of the financial assistance program for wildfire evacuees, which she introduced Monday afternoon, depending on the feedback from a telephone town hall for displaced Albertans Tuesday evening.
“Depending on what I hear, I will certainly take that back to our cabinet for discussion,” Ms. Smith told reporters. “If we need to make further amendments, I will bring that back to my emergency cabinet [committee].”
Under the relief program, Alberta will give $1,250 to every resident displaced for at least seven days thanks to mandatory evacuation orders. It will also provide $500 for every dependent child under 18 who evacuated for at least seven days. The payment plan is similar to Alberta’s response to other natural disasters, like the floods in 2013 and the Fort McMurray fire in 2016.
The seven-day standard means thousands of Albertans who evacuated this month will be excluded. Evacuation orders for 8,000 people in Edson kicked in May 5 and ended May 8, for example. Another 6,000 people in Yellowhead County were ordered out of their homes May 5 and some were able to return May 8.
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Patience among some evacuees is thinning. The Grande Prairie Regional Emergency Partnership held an information session Monday evening, where handfuls of people lined up at microphones to challenge the decisions the government and wildfire experts have made in their area.
Multiple residents pressed officials on why they cannot return to their homes to attend to their farm animals or clean out the food in their freezers. Some asked about officials going on properties to move flammable items like propane tanks or stacks of cardboard. The questions and comments were laced with cuss words and distrust of government, including anger directed at Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
“Spare me the political crap and tell us what’s really going on,” one resident said to officials, with the crowd responding with cheers.
Another man argued local volunteers and companies that service the energy industry could have contained the blaze, unlike the trained firefighters. He said given the lack of information, residents are soon going to ignore evacuation orders and return home.
“This is like COVID all over again,” the man said. “We’ve dealt with this for three years and we’re done. We’re going back to our homes.
“If I go in there and I die because I’m in the fire zone, that’s on me.”
Pandemic frustrations also emerged at Ms. Smith’s news conference when she addressed comments she made in a recently resurfaced podcast, recorded in November, 2021, where she compared people who got vaccinated against COVID-19 with supporters of tyrants, referencing Hitler.
“COVID was a really difficult and frustrating time, for everyone, including me,” Ms. Smith said. “And I don’t think there is a single one of us that wasn’t deeply impacted in some way. Sometimes, I let my frustrations get to me during that time. I clearly shouldn’t have.
“But when I got elected, I vowed to put those dark days behind all of us,” she said.