Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, evacuees see what Alberta evacuees received and are expecting no less. Alberta evacuees received $1,250 per adult and $550 per dependent child, and the payment was not incomebased.
Mr. Speaker, I ask the Minister of Finance what was the rationale for settling on a payment of $750 per person, and why was it based on income disruption and not an actual cost incurred as this may exclude many evacuees? Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Hay River South. Minister responsible for Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there's a few issues in there. I think I've caught them all.
First of all, Mr. Speaker, we're not Alberta. They were dealing with less than one percent of their population that was forced to be evacuated. We were looking at almost 10 percent of the population in the Northwest Territories being evacuated. And, Mr. Speaker, I know folks are looking at Alberta. I suspect folks in British Columbia were looking at Alberta, as were folks in Saskatchewan looking at Alberta, and even Nova Scotia might, frankly, be looking at us because they were offering, at last count, only $500 per resident although under a certainly different system than what we were under.
Mr. Speaker, we don't have the fiscal capacity. We are running a deficit every year. We run less of a deficit when we have an operating surplus, but we do run a deficit, nonetheless. What we tried to do is to take our fiscal capacity and fill some gaps.
So, Mr. Speaker, looking at actual costs, our first priority was to minimize those costs. So that's where you have the EMO stepping in and providing transportation, food, shelter, you know, immediate toiletries, etcetera. I realize folks don't necessarily want to stay at the emergency evacuation shelters but they were there, they were available in order to minimize costs and to fill those gaps for folks who needed it most.
Similarly, Mr. Speaker, this is where we had the United Way offered $150,000 to help encourage donations, and they were over $500,000 earlier this week when last I checked. They too are helping to fill some of the gaps and to minimize the costs that residents are facing.
But what we then looked to is so knowing that some of the costs are being filled by these different sources, Mr. Speaker, we're looking at folks who had income disruptions. A lot of individuals still continue to receive their income. We did also ensure that public servants were receiving GNWT's public servants were receiving their income. But for those who face an income interruption, that's the group we wanted to try and target. We selected the $750, again, Mr. Speaker, because we're trying to be fair. Income assistance already was providing a thousand dollars for someone with a dependent or $500 to an adult. Putting it at $750 tries to be fair within all of those parameters that I have described. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, will the Minister explain to the evacuees what are the criteria for accessing the program, and is there some flexibility as not all persons evacuated but may nevertheless have experienced income loss? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, so just briefly, firstly, this is all available online if anyone wants to have a look at it if they're in a capacity to do that. But in short, anyone over the age of 17 who's been subject to an evacuation order of seven days or more and who has had some sort of income disruption or income loss as a result of that, they can apply. You don't have to have been evacuated. We certainly want to encourage people when they're under an evacuation order to please evacuate. It's not there for anything less than necessity. But also didn't want to exclude the fact that some folks would have been emergency responders, may not have been able to evacuate initially. They might have been at the hospital, etcetera, or gone back early to help restart. So we didn't want to exclude anyone. It does apply to everyone. You don't have to have been actually evacuated although I don't want to take away, again, the importance of doing so when you're under one of those orders. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister confirm if any payments have been disbursed today? How have they been disbursed. Is it by direct deposit, EMT, Canada Post? What is the timing between application and disbursement of payments, as there are many evacuees needing the funds now and asking when they should expect payment, and I just need to know what to tell them. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, a big part of what we tried to do with this program was to make it easy to apply and then easy to get the money out. So, again, that is another one of the reasons when you look at one of the forms online, it's online fillable, and it's looking for proof of income, income disruption, but we're not asking people to start going and tracking down documents that they might not have had, particularly if the evacuation had lasted longer. So there's provisions in there to speak to their income disruption but not asking for a lot of difficult paperwork. And once they can fill that form out, they can send it in by email. We've given this information to GNWT staff so they could help individuals, and funds can be disbursed through either direct deposit or by cheque. So it really is up to an individual what circumstance they may find easier for them. I can say, I think there was an ask about what kind of inquiries we're getting. We certainly are starting to see some applications come in and are immediately working right now to prioritize getting those approved and the money out the door. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Hay River South.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And, Mr. Speaker, I think it's important that we do get money out to the evacuees as soon as possible because there are many that are without right now and, you know, they're short on money and they need our support.
But, Mr. Speaker, will the Minister confirm if this program is to be used for future evacuations and will the amount distinguish between those evacuees from isolated and non-isolated communities? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This program is now a policy of the GNWT, Mr. Speaker. Really, the conversation here began because we're cognizant that this is a community these are communities that have been under an evacuation now two years in a row. But in any event, that it's going to be available going forward.
As far as a difference between isolated versus non-isolated, again, Mr. Speaker, the emergency management process involves ensuring the availability of transport to any resident who is under an evacuation order. So just as there was busses available to support people who needed it coming out of Hay River, we would be working with communities if they're under an evacuation order to ensure that every resident is able to evacuate safely. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Tu NedheWiilideh.
