800 more fire evacuees expected to find refuge in Niagara Falls City with 14,000-plus hotel rooms ‘happy to do our part’ By: Tyler Searle Posted: 5:46 PM CDT Tuesday, Jun. 3, 2025

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This article was published 03/06/2025 (455 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Hundreds more wildfire evacuees were expected to fly to Ontario Tuesday, where a third-party organization has arranged for them to stay in hotel rooms.

Xpera, a security and evacuation support service firm, had organized flights for 793 evacuees who are already staying in Niagara Falls, said Robert Garland, Xpera vice-president of emergency security management for Eastern Canada.

As many as 800 additional evacuees could make the journey on Tuesday, Garland said.

“That all depends on whether, in Winnipeg, they can get the planes full or not. It’s a situation of getting families to a marquee point and then on to planes,” he said.

Niagara has become a destination for some of the 17,000 people, many of whom are from remote and northern communities, who have been displaced by wildfires.

Hotels in southern Manitoba quickly filled up, and the Canadian Red Cross established emergency shelters in arenas and other large spaces.

“People with nowhere to stay outside of a congregate setting are definitely getting on planes and coming here to Niagara, and that frees up some of the beds in Winnipeg for some of the most vulnerable,” Garland said.

The evacuees headed for Ontario are associated with Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak, a northern Indigenous political entity that represents 26 First Nations, including five under mandatory evacuation orders: Pimicikamak (Cross Lake), Norway House Cree Nation, Mathias Colomb Cree Nation (Pukatawagan), Marcel Colomb First Nation (Black Sturgeon Falls) and Tataskweyak Cree Nation (Split Lake).

York Factory First Nation (York Landing), another MKO community, evacuated vulnerable residents Monday, but is not subject to a mandatory order.

Eight Niagara hotels have so far opened their doors to evacuees. Xpera is prepared to find accommodations for up to 3,000 people, but that number could change depending on the rapidly evolving situation, Garland said.

After the Manitoba government reached out to Ontario for support, Xpera was tapped to arrange accommodations because it has a contract with Emergency Management Ontario, he said.

Garland could not provide a price tag, but said it will be paid by the federal government through Indigenous Services Canada.

“The silver lining in the grey cloud is… they are going to get to take in one of the great natural attractions of the world.”–Niagara Mayor Jim Diodati

Xpera is arranging recreation activities and security for evacuees. It is co-ordinating with health authorities from Ontario and Manitoba to provide health care, Garland said.

“So far, everything is running really smoothly.”

Niagara, Ont., Mayor Jim Diodati said his city has opened its arms to Manitobans.

“Some of them, I’m sure, are nervous or stressed because they are getting uprooted from their homes and they’re being taken thousands of miles away, but I’m hoping that the silver lining in the grey cloud is… they are going to get to take in one of the great natural attractions of the world,” he said.

The city attracts as many as 14 million visitors each year who want to see the Niagara Falls. It has an inventory of more than 14,000 hotel rooms, which makes it a “logical place for any situation where you need a lot of spots for people quickly.”

“We are happy to do our part, especially initially,” he said.

The tourism season kicks into high gear in Niagara around July 1. Diodati said he hopes the federal government can find alternative places to house evacuees before then because hotels will likely reach capacity.

If the crisis extends into the summer, Diodati suggested post-secondary institutions throughout the country could be considered for temporary accommodation.

Back in Manitoba, some evacuees were settling into hotels after spending time in emergency shelters.

Talking about home brought Robert Burroughs to tears outside the Victoria Inn on Wellington Avenue.

The Flin Flon resident was moved to the hotel after spending one night at the Century Arena in Fort Garry.

“I’m a very emotional guy,” he said softly. “It’s been very difficult.”

Burroughs, an employee of the Victoria Inn in Flin Flon, fled the northern city May 28 with only bare essentials. He was part of a massive convoy that drove south as flames crept dangerously close to the city of about 5,100 people.

He considers himself lucky because his general manager arranged rooms for him and roughly 30 other Victoria Inn employees from Flin Flon, who are staying at the chain’s hotel in Winnipeg.

“Red Cross has been so busy we don’t have any meal tickets,” he said. “We are having to support ourselves. They say to keep our receipts. At first, they accepted our Red Cross cards, but now they need the meal tickets for the hotel to get paid by Red Cross.”

Darell Moore was aboard one of the last planes out of Norway House on Monday night. No hotel room was waiting for him when he touched down in Winnipeg.

“I slept in my truck,” he said, describing a long night spent beside his seven-year-old dog, Buzy.

“I had to sleep in the truck with all of my babies.”–Darrylee McKay

Over the weekend, Moore’s daughter, Darrylee McKay, loaded six children into her father’s pickup and made the eight-hour drive south to Winnipeg. Among them were her three children, and kids who belong to her sister and niece. A second car that travelled with them carried four more children.

“We had to keep stopping, all the kids had to keep using the washroom,” McKay said. “It was a hard drive.”

The family, from Cross Lake, had sought safety in Norway House after an evacuation order was issued. Once in Winnipeg, they spent their first night at a soccer complex on Leila Avenue that has been converted into a temporary shelter to house hundreds of evacuees.

“It was crazy,” she said. “We had to stay next to a lot of people and sleep in cots. No sleep at all.”

Still, she said, it was better than Norway House.

“I had to sleep in the truck with all of my babies,” she said.

On Tuesday, Moore was trying to get a room at the same hotel where the rest of his family was staying.

He said after he registered with the Red Cross Monday night, he was told it could take up to two days before he’d be placed in a hotel.

The Red Cross has refused to do an interview regarding the evacuation process and putting up people in hotels.

The provincial government said evacuees who require enhanced accessibility or have medical needs are the first to get a room.

It confirmed some rooms have been booked outside of the centralized process. Hundreds more hotel rooms are expected to become available in Manitoba over the coming days, the province said.

— With files from Scott Billeck

tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca