Hotel bills for Manitoba flood evacuees going unpaid
ShepherdsDog @ Wed Apr 03, 2013 5:26 am
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/ ... itoba.html
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CBC has learned the Manitoba Association of Aboriginal Fire Fighters (MANFF), which disburses federal dollars to flood evacuees, hasn’t been paying some bills for the last six months.
At least six hotels and a restaurant are owed about $3 million.
“I've had kids here for a year and half, and we’re not getting paid for their food or their housing,” said Mike Bruneau, owner Misty Lake Lodge near Gimli and the Ashern Motor Hotel. He said he hasn’t been paid for six months.
Bruneau said he is now owed almost $2 million. Misty Lake houses 65 evacuees from Lake St. Martin and Little Saskatchewan First Nations. Another 20 evacuees live at his Ashern hotel.
Misty Lake was once a popular wedding and convention destination but because of how the lodge has been renovated into living quarters to accommodate the evacuees, that business is gone.
At least six hotels and a restaurant are owed about $3 million.
“I've had kids here for a year and half, and we’re not getting paid for their food or their housing,” said Mike Bruneau, owner Misty Lake Lodge near Gimli and the Ashern Motor Hotel. He said he hasn’t been paid for six months.
Bruneau said he is now owed almost $2 million. Misty Lake houses 65 evacuees from Lake St. Martin and Little Saskatchewan First Nations. Another 20 evacuees live at his Ashern hotel.
Misty Lake was once a popular wedding and convention destination but because of how the lodge has been renovated into living quarters to accommodate the evacuees, that business is gone.
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Misty Lake was set to meet with MANFF two weeks ago to sort out the bills, but the meeting was cancelled with a few hours notice.
MANFF has not responded to CBC’s repeated requests for an interview.
Late Monday, MANFF sent a fax to Misty Lake Lodge offering to pay part of their bill if the total from six invoices was cut by $148,000
MANFF has not responded to CBC’s repeated requests for an interview.
Late Monday, MANFF sent a fax to Misty Lake Lodge offering to pay part of their bill if the total from six invoices was cut by $148,000
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Rytha Dykes, general manager at Misty Lake Lodge, said she checked with EMO and discovered the province had already paid MANFF for the Misty Lake’s invoices — the very ones which MANFF has been slow to settle.
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The province says $72 million has been advanced since the onset of the flood to MANFF in order to keep cash flowing to evacuees, but it doesn’t watch how the money is spent — that’s done in a federal audit, which hasn’t happened yet.
so.....where has the money gone??
OnTheIce @ Wed Apr 03, 2013 5:36 am
But Natives don't need oversight, they are masters with financial issues. 
The circle continues.
Give Natives Money > Money Lost > Investigation Begins > Government Called Racist.
ShepherdsDog @ Wed Apr 03, 2013 5:47 am
Listening to the radio interview with the manager of Misty Lodge. MANFF has been lying through their teeth to them. The rates were agreed upon in 2011 and the funds were delivered by the government and now they want further reductions. Way to go you fucking scum....you're killing businesses that were helping you
Brenda @ Wed Apr 03, 2013 6:09 am
Why does a Fire Fighter Association do the finances? Can't the lodges and hotels claim with the government??
BartSimpson @ Wed Apr 03, 2013 9:24 am
If I were running the lodge the natives would be out on their butts before lunchtime today.
Lemmy @ Wed Apr 03, 2013 9:34 am
It's funny to me that the key witness in a flood-controversy is named Dykes.
BartSimpson @ Wed Apr 03, 2013 10:03 am
Lemmy Lemmy:
It's funny to me that the key witness in a flood-controversy is named Dykes.
ShepherdsDog @ Wed Apr 03, 2013 10:37 am
BartSimpson BartSimpson:
If I were running the lodge the natives would be out on their butts before lunchtime today.
The owners won't do that, as the people, any of them children, have no place to go. They are victims too. It's the XXXXX that the government are handing money too who are screwing the people and the business owners. They are the ones that should be double tapped, or at the very least knee capped. The chief and councils, and other native organizations fuck them over, and the government does too, by allowing the people being given the money not to be accountable for the funds handed over.
Unsound @ Wed Apr 03, 2013 12:28 pm
Besides the unpaid bills, why is it that people are still being housed in hotels and campgrounds after a flood that happened in 2011?
ShepherdsDog @ Wed Apr 03, 2013 12:33 pm
some....not all....are refusing to move into new homes that have been built for them
Unsound @ Wed Apr 03, 2013 12:41 pm
ShepherdsDog ShepherdsDog:
some....not all....are refusing to move into new homes that have been built for them
lame.
ShepherdsDog @ Wed Apr 03, 2013 1:55 pm
yup
martin14 @ Fri Apr 05, 2013 3:26 am
Let that be a lesson to every hotel owner in the country to not accept them in
the first place, not without money up front.
And the silence from Curtman is just deafening. 
ShepherdsDog @ Thu Apr 11, 2013 5:53 am
feds say Manitoba is on the hook for one million dollar snack fee
These people were being allocated $60(per person) a day for snacks, on top of what was being paid for breakfast, lunch, and dinner........how many people in the real working world have these sorts of expenses?? The provincial government is to blame for this, as they handed cash over without any strings attached. Time to be more accountable with the tax payer's money.
ShepherdsDog @ Thu Apr 11, 2013 2:14 pm
now MANNF are telling the 65 people staying at Misty Lodge that they have to leave by the end of the week, or they'll be cut off. They want them to relocate to a Winnipeg hotel. Guess the owners wouldn't cut an extra 150 000 off of what they're owed.... and what the government has already paid out to MANFF. There needs to be a criminal investigation here for fraud.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/ ... itoba.html