Daily $34 stipend only scratches surface for some wildfire evacuees Financial aid offered to 21,000 displaced Manitobans By: Malak Abas Posted: 6:07 PM CDT Monday, Jun. 9, 2025 Last Modified: 9:07 AM CDT Tuesday, Jun. 10, 2025 Updates

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A $34 daily stipend for Manitobans who were forced to leave their home communities to escape wildfires isn’t enough to cover day-to-day life in Winnipeg, some evacuees say.

“It isn’t enough,” Rebecca Osborne told the Free Press while outside the Victoria Inn with her daughter Monday morning.

Financial aid for wildfire evacuees, first announced Thursday, provides $34 daily for anyone 13 or older and $27 for anyone 12 and under whose primary residence is under a mandatory fire evacuation order.

Osborne left Cross Lake with her four young children, her mother and other relatives just over a week ago and is now staying at a Winnipeg hotel. Out-of-pocket costs for basic necessities popped up almost immediately, she said, and while she knew there were places to get help in Winnipeg, it was difficult to visit donation centres with her four kids in tow.

Desperate, she took out a $400 loan from an online lender. She’s not sure how she’ll pay it back when the time comes.

“It only lasted us two days,” she said.

Evacuees staying at the Victoria Inn said they appreciated the assistance but some wondered how much longer they’d be able to keep up with costs before being able to return home.

“We’re usually dealt the minimum for everything, everywhere, anyway, so a help-out like this seems like a lot compared to the usual, nothing,” joked Charm Prettie, an evacuee from Norway House.

Lesley Anne Ross, from Cross Lake, said she’s spent about $60 a day out of her own pocket on day-to-day items like hygiene products in the nine days since she had to evacuate. Monday was laundry day — another $8, she said.

“I don’t buy stuff every day, I’m trying to save, but yeah, it’s a lot,” she said.

She, too, said getting transportation to reach evacuation support and donation centres was a struggle.

“I’m good with $34 but they should move it up a bit, like, maybe $60 to $70,” she said.

Evacuees must be registered with the Canadian Red Cross to receive the stipend, either through e-transfer or pre-paid cards distributed by the Red Cross and Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak.

“We’re usually dealt the minimum for everything, everywhere, anyway, so a help-out like this seems like a lot compared to the usual, nothing.”–Charm Prettie

Funds are expected to begin flowing three to five business days after the Red Cross verifies the identity of the registrant, which “can take some time,” according to their website.

Lisa Naylor, the minister responsible for emergency management, said the province had worked to increase the amount of money going to evacuees but did not say if she thought the amount was enough.

“Historically, there would have been a different amount from Indigenous Services Canada, a lesser amount, going to community members compared to what the amount that would have come through our emergency social services,” she said at a news conference Monday afternoon.

“And so the province actually did a lot of work on that to ensure that the same amount of dollars would flow for everyone, regardless of where the initial point of contact was.”

In Saskatchewan, where there were 24 active wildfires and 10,000 to 15,000 people forced to flee their homes as of Saturday, evacuees registered as the head of their household are receiving $40 daily, with additional household members receiving $20 per day up to a maximum of $200 distributed by the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency.

Flin Flon Mayor George Fontaine, who is staying with family in Winnipeg, said he knows some of his constituents are struggling to get by while they wait and worry over their homes.

“I’m glad to hear that there is a daily stipend in the first place … do I think it would be nice if it was more? Sure, I do, because I know that’s not enough to make ends meet,” he said.

“I’m talking to people who have no income, no additional income, and for people like that, that’s not enough, it doesn’t do it.”

Municipalities like his and many others that have been evacuated aren’t structured to provide much in the way of financial support, so all they can do is point their residents in the direction of support being offered, he said.

“When you’re on your own, you’re in a strange place and don’t have any spare cash, it’s a pretty tight situation and a pretty daunting one,” he said.

“I’m talking to people who have no income, no additional income, and for people like that, that’s not enough, it doesn’t do it.”–Flin Flon Mayor George Fontaine

A spokesperson with the Canadian Red Cross said applications began to be processed over the weekend, but didn’t comment on how the dollar figures were decided or if they could change in the future.

“The response in Manitoba is large and complex, and volunteers and staff are working around the clock to help people as quickly as possible,” he said in an email.

More than $3.3 million has been raised by the Red Cross for Manitoba wildfire relief. That amount doesn’t include matching donations from the federal and provincial governments.

There are now more than 21,000 Manitobans registered as wildfire evacuees.

— with files from Nicole Buffie and The Canadian Press

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca

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Malak Abas
Reporter

Malak Abas is a city reporter at the Free Press. Born and raised in Winnipeg’s North End, she led the campus paper at the University of Manitoba before joining the Free Press in 2020. Read more about Malak.

Every piece of reporting Malak produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.