In Manitoba, almost 10 % of the evacuated who had to leave their communities due to forest fires sleep on camp beds in temporary shelters, while waiting to be transferred to more comfortable hotel rooms. At the same time, some Winnipeg hoteliers claim that hotel rooms are empty.
About 1100 of the 12,000 evacuated are in temporary shelters, such as the sports complex and the Reclexion, from the University of Winnipeg.
Evacués from security agents and other support workers outside the University of Winnipeg.
Photo : Radio-Canada / Justin Fraser
The Viscount Gort hotel, located on avenue Portage, had welcomed more than one hundred people evacuated during the first wave of evacuation of forest fires last spring.
Robby Sankar, the director general of the Viscount Gort hotel, indicates that although the hotel remains in contact with the Canadian Red Cross about the capacity, he has not received an official request to receive evacuates within his establishment for the moment.
I have 20 rooms that are available and they are still vacant at the moment
your Robby Sankar. We had to stop accepting part of our usual customers, so we keep open rooms for the evacuated, but we still do not have any news.
Andrew Pomierny, the director general of the establishment Four Crowns Inn, Located on McPhillips Street, recalls that the establishment had made ten rooms available to the victims during the first wave of evacuation.
He specifies that the Manitobain government often contacts the hotel to obtain information on its capacity, but that its rooms is always empty and is not reserved.
Even if we have to keep them open without putting anyone, knowing that there will be a wave, we will do so. We want to help
explains Mr. Pomierny.
Michael Juce, the president of the Manitoba hotel association, informs that the organization is in permanent contact with hotel directors in Winnipeg and that it gives them updates and resources.
He indicates that there are 7,600 hotel rooms in Winnipeg, but that there is a number of them that are not accessible for a period due to renovations, repairs and maintenance work.
Of the 12,000 people currently evacuated, more than 6,000 have already been accommodated in Manitoba hotels, and 1,300 others in Ontario hotels, according to the provincial government. These figures do not take into account the 3,600 evacuated people hosted by friends or family members, nor the 1,100 people hosted in collective shelters.
Photo : Radio-Canada
The province and the Red Cross coordinate the emergency accommodation of the evacuated, in collaboration with the indigenous communities affected by the forest fires.
They indicate that the rooms are granted as a priority to people with accessibility problems or other special needs.
The province and the Red Cross claim that they will provide hotel rooms to other evacuates as they go, depending on their availability.
We are trying to obtain hotel rooms for prolonged stay periods to minimize the disturbances and limit the number of trips that an evacuated must make while it is out of its community
indicates the Manitobain government by press release.
The Red Cross adds that it works with Aboriginal leaders on the establishment of collective shelters for people who cannot stay with their loved ones immediately after evacuation.
With information from Mike Arsenault