Giving Aid

Fairly shortly after the earthquake in Haiti various Canadian media outlets trumpeted with much fanfare and perhaps some justification that Canadians had given more per capita to assist that damaged country than anywhere else. Canadians who heard such statements had every reason to be proud. There have been other opportunities to demonstrate our individual and national will and capacity to assist others. Whether it was refugees from Viet Nam or more recently from Syria, disaster aid to the Sudan or to other parts of sub-Saharan Africa, the use of our Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) in the Philippines, to our aid in Nepal Canada has been ready and able to provide assistance

 Canadians have however, had relatively few opportunities to demonstrate their generosity within our own borders. Certainly when the rivers around Winnipeg over-flow the banks Canadians have contributed to the disaster relief efforts, when the town of Save Lake burnt in another disastrous fire a few years ago, Canadians were there to help but in general we have been fortunate as a country not to have had the type of disasters that other countries seem to have with discouraging regularity. Due to our lack of practice in donating internally and given the often mentioned animosity between central Canada and the West, one could have assumed that Canadians would not have been responsive, or at least not respond quickly.

However, as demonstrated by the wild fire and the consequent destruction of homes and infrastructure in and around Fort McMurray – Canadians are very capable and more importantly very willing to assist their fellow Canadians. I met a lady on the train who was from Fort McMurray. To things struck me about her and her experiences. One was that at every step of the way there was someone or some organization ready to help. The second thing that perhaps should not have surprised me was how thrilled and how gracious she was about all of the assistance she had received.

It seems to me that with a handful of exceptions (most notably Air Canada who appear to not have been at all generous about assisting people to get out of the area) companies, governments and people have done all that they could to make what must have been an absolutely horrible experience to be as smooth as is possible. The amounts of money donated by private individuals and governments not only appears to be sufficient for the moment, but it was allocated/donated almost immediately. Surprisingly there seems to have been relatively little red tape in at least the early stages.

Hopefully the fires will start to die out, people will then be able to assess the situation, things can get rebuilt and people can get back to their lives. It won’t be easy, it will take months and months before anyone’s life will resemble anything near normal. It will cost billions of dollars to rebuild and many of the residents, especially those without adequate insurance, may never recover completely. While it is wonderful that all of the individuals, companies and governments were so responsive during the crises and the immediate aftermath, the real test of our capacity to care and to be our brother’s keeper will be in the months ahead when the fire no longer is the top news story.