The Town of Kapuskasing’s administrator says clawing back any more of the $7.1 million owed by Indigenous Services Canada for hosting James Bay evacuees in 2023 has become a very challenging task. Guylain Baril says the federal government doesn’t want to fully reimburse the town for expenses like what’s been done in the past.
“There are just a lot of things that are just very normal to how we always did it and now they are saying that this is more than they can pay which is not an acceptable answer to us,” he said. “So we have been holding firm with our position but still owed to the tune of $600,000 that we are owed from the federal government.”
Baril says it’s coming up on the two year anniversary since that all took place and it’s a situation that needs to be resolved.
“But at the end of the day if they’re not indicating that they are not willing to repay the whole amount there may be a way to begin negotiations that we will have to get into to recuperate some of it,” he said.
The Town of Kap is no longer the lead for hosting evacuees from the James Bay Coast as Indigenous Services has turned it over to the private sector
