About one in 10 of all Manitoba wildfire evacuees remain in group shelters, sleeping on cots, as they await a move into more comfortable hotel room accommodations — even as some Winnipeg hoteliers say they have spaces sitting vacant.
Approximately 1,100 of the 12,000 Manitoba evacuees currently forced from their communities were staying in congregate shelters as of Tuesday, including at the University of Winnipeg RecPlex, because they have nowhere else to go for now.
That’s despite some hotels in the city saying they have available hotel rooms that just haven’t been booked yet amid the second provincial state of emergency declared since the end of May.
“Although I have these 20 rooms available, they don’t seem to be taking those 20 rooms,” said Robby Sankar, general manager of the Viscount Gort Hotel on Portage Avenue.
The Viscount Gort hosted more than 100 evacuees during the first wave of wildfire evacuations this spring.
Sankar said although the Canadian Red Cross checks in with his hotel regularly to keep tabs on capacity, it has yet to reserve any spaces there for the most recent exodus of people from northern Manitoba.
“We’ve had to stop taking some of our regular business, so we are keeping those rooms open for them, but we haven’t had any call-backs to take anymore,” Sankar told CBC News on Tuesday.
Andrew Pomierny, a general manager with Four Crowns Inn on McPhillips Street, said it made 10 rooms available to evacuees during the first wildfire evacuation wave. They’re making more available again now.
“Even if we have to keep them open without putting anybody in there, knowing there’s going to be a wave, that’s our way of contributing to the help effort,” Pomierny said.
He said the Manitoba government contacts the hotel on a frequent basis to get capacity updates, but their rooms are still empty and unbooked for evacuees.
“I have not received any requests yet as of last weekend,” Pomierny said in an interview Tuesday.
Of the roughly 12,000 current evacuees, more than 6,000 have already been put up in hotels in Manitoba, with another 1,300 staying in Ontario hotels, according to the provincial government. That’s not including the 3,600 evacuees staying with friends and family, or the 1,100 staying in congregate shelters.
Manitoba Hotel Association president Michael Juce told CBC News on Tuesday the organization is in constant contact with hotel managers in Winnipeg and have been sharing updates and resources with them.
He said there are 7,600 hotel rooms in Winnipeg, though at any given time a number of those aren’t accessible due to renovations, repairs and maintenance.
Rooms are being prioritized for evacuees with accessibility concerns and other unique needs, say the province and Red Cross, which are co-ordinating emergency placements for evacuees alongside and leadership of Indigenous communities impacted by wildfires.
As people forced from their homes by fires in Manitoba look for accommodations in hotels, rather than shelters, some hotels say they have space, but the rooms aren’t being booked.
Space for other evacuees will be provided as it’s available, the province and Red Cross said in statements to CBC News.
“The province works to secure large blocks of hotel rooms over extended stay periods to minimize disruption and limit the number of moves an evacuee needs to make while out of their community,” reads the statement from the province.
“The province continues to re-evaluate hotel availability, and is working with the Manitoba Hotel Association and other hotels to support the evacuation response.”
The Red Cross is also working with Indigenous leaders on the operation of congregate shelters for those unable to stay with loved ones immediately upon evacuation.
That includes some of the 4,000 people that Premier Wab Kinew said last week were expected to evacuate from a single fire-threatened community: Garden Hill Anisininew Nation. Some are now staying at the U of W RecPlex.
Pomierny said Four Crowns Inn is ready to take in more evacuees if and when the province books rooms.
“Even if it means for us to stay and wait with the rooms for a little bit, it’s important to be ready when those people need help,” he said.
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