Canadian Red Cross answers questions on P.E.I. Fiona response

Islanders want answers for delayed Fiona relief Islanders are calling for accountability after being subjected to long line-ups and delays getting a $250 Fiona support payment.

The Canadian Red Cross was in the hot seat on Prince Edward Island Friday afternoon as representatives of the charity were questioned by Island MLAs.

Red Cross officials appeared before the Standing Committee on Health and Social Development grilled.

“They could be seniors. They’re people who’ve lived here for 20, 30 years, but they couldn’t get their money, and then that whole process to deliver that didn’t happen,” said Robert Henderson, Liberal MLA. “So could you, maybe, respond on how I could answer my constituents on why this was, I’m going to say, a mess.”

The Red Cross responded to questions for over an hour, including clarifying the roughly 5,000 registrations on P.E.I. which haven’t yet been processed.

“1,500 of those new registrations, just as of this past Friday,” said Bill Lawlor, Atlantic Director. “Those are new registrations, they’re not people who’ve done this previously in weeks prior.”

Lawlor said a further 3,500 applications are likely duplicates or suspicious.

There are still people waiting for aid at the Red Cross site in Charlottetown, even after they doubled capacity. The Red Cross could process 400 a day for all of P.E.I.’s three sites, now they can process that much at the Charlottetown site alone.

“Our goal is to have no turn-aways and we have succeeded in that in many locations,” Lawlor said. “Not the Charlottetown location yet.”

Since Hurricane Fiona hit over a month ago, the Red Cross has given out support to 112,000 people on P.E.I. alone, including the $250 in provincial aid to households that have signed up for it.

Lawlor said hurricane Fiona is the worst disaster the Red Cross has ever responded to in Canada, in terms of people needing support, surpassing even the 2016 wildfires in Fort McMurray.