http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/ ... itoba.html$1:
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.
$1:
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
$1:
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.
$1:
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??