Wildfire payments available to evacuees gone for 7 days total, not consecutive, Alberta clarifies

Helicopter crashes during wildfire fighting An Alberta pilot was killed in a crash during a firefighting operation in northern Alberta on Wednesday.

The emergency financial support for wildfire evacuees will be available to people forced out of their homes for a total of seven days, not seven consecutive days, the province clarified Tuesday.

The one-time payments of $1,250 to adults and $500 to children began on Tuesday.

On Monday when the cash was announced, the province said the payments would go to Albertans forced out of their communities for seven consecutive days.

The government corrected itself Tuesday morning.

"Evacuees do not have to have been out of their homes for 7 consecutive days," Colin Aitchison, acting director of government communications for the officer of the premier, wrote to CTV News Edmonton in an email. "It is 7 days in total. If residents were evacuated, returned to their homes, and then were re-evacuated, they are eligible if it’s a cumulative total of 7 days."

The province's announcement caused frustration and confusion among evacuees.

Dlaine Germyn and her family were ordered to leave Evansburg twice. They were gone for three days and returned home for two days before they were forced to leave again.

Upset, she called her MP and MLA to advocate for change.

"We've spent about $1,000 on hotels, we've spent, give or take, $500-$700 on food and other essentials like clothes, Tylenol for the kids," she told CTV News Edmonton after the province amended the criteria.

"Now that we're getting that money, we can pay off the Mastercard and then put whatever is left of it aside. If we have to evacuate again, we will have a little slush fund that we will be able to rely on to put us in hotels and feed us for a couple of days. Hopefully that doesn't happen."

Eligible Albertans can apply for the payments online.