(CFJC Today/File photo).

By Chad Klassen

NDP DISASTER RELIEF PROMISE

Sundhu reiterates NDP promise to provide $3 billion in disaster relief for residents affected by wildfire

Sep 8, 2021 | 12:12 PM

KAMLOOPS — The NDP’s leader Jagmeet Singh promised $3 billion over four years to help municipalities like Kamloops respond to disasters like wildfires and floods, which are becoming the new norm.

The promise was made by Singh at a townhall with B.C. Interior residents last week. On Wednesday morning (Sept. 8), the NDP’s candidate for Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo Bill Sundhu, along with the party’s house leader Peter Julian, reiterated Singh’s promise.

Sundhu says people in the Southern Interior impacted by the third worst wildfire season on record in B.C. need more immediate assistance in their recovery.

“This is about taking care of each other, and it also makes economic sense and it’s the right and proper thing to do,” Sundhu said. “We will leave it to individual communities — Indigenous and municipalities — to identify their needs, and that means building climate-resilient infrastructure, but also providing relief. Families were left on their own this summer, even though it’s the third out of fifth summer we’ve had wildfires.”

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Monte Lake resident Anita Strong says the relief and mitigation measures are much-needed in Interior communities like hers.

“If you get a level of government or two helping to finance, helping to distribute all the money, it would certainly help to get the people [help] who would otherwise not get anything,” said Strong.