Feds announce funding for comfort centres in Cape Breton

It's been almost a year-and-a-half since post-tropical storm Fiona impacted the Maritimes and for many, including first responders, it's a storm they won't soon forget.

“Our town was absolutely destroyed,” said John Chant, chief of the Glace Bay Volunteer Fire Department in Cape Breton.

Chant and his fire fighters responded to dozens of calls on the day Fiona hit, but they had to turn people away from their Fire Hall because they had no power.

On Friday, the Federal Government announced almost $200,000 in funding to install generators and make the Glace Bay Fire Hall and the John J. Nugent Fireman's Centre in Sydney Mines, N.S., comfort centres.

“It's great that we don't have to turn people away during emergencies now. We can bring them in, comfort them and help them as much as we can,” said Chant.

The money is coming from Ottawa's Hurricane Fiona Recovery Fund.

This is in addition to the $1,057,665 announced earlier this week for 29 other comfort centres in Guysborough County and across Cape Breton.

The federal government announced funding for comfort centres in Cape Breton on Jan. 12, 2024. (Source: Kyle Moore/CTV News Atlantic)“We need to prepare and constantly evolve with the changing environment, so too must government policy, government action and government funding to invest in communities who know best where the money should go,” said Mike Kelloway, Nova Scotia Liberal Member of Parliament.

Amanda McDougall-Merrill, mayor of the Cape Breton Regional Municipality, says damage from the storm still needs to be cleaned up in places and they're still tallying up their total disaster relief assistance.

“Some of that is still being calculated. I know it was reported in the last couple of weeks that there is still debris that has to be taken care of, so that will still be a charge to our Fiona related expenses,” she said.

McDougall-Merrill says all levels of government have learned from Fiona.

“Today is a perfect example of what happens when politics are put aside and the hard work is done,” she said.

The Fiona Recovery fund will end on March 31.

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