RE: Follow up from our letter dated June 21 , 2020 to your office and the subsequent
st
13 2020.
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People in Northeast Calgary are badly in need of your help after the devastating hailstorm on
June 13th, 2020. We ask that you make an urgent request to the Disaster Financial Assistance
Arrangements administered by the federal Public Safety Minister.
We are the people you encouraged as Minister of Citizenship and Immigration. We accepted
your challenge as newcomers to Canada to work hard and help to make our chosen country
of Canada even greater than it is.
We are the small business owners, entrepreneurs and self-employed citizens who are hoping
to weather the economic downturn and COVID-19 pandemic. But the hailstorm has put many
of us on the verge of catastrophe.
Our savings are depleted, our credit lines are at their max and our families are coping under
enormous stress. Now we are faced with home repairs and there is no money to pay for
them. Some cannot afford to pay the deductibles and or depreciation from this storm of which
IBC have reported over $1.2b in damages and now with over 70,000 claims. This will lead to
many families living in damaged and / or unsafe housing. Unfortunately, the insurance
companies are not willing to help and are hiding behind the depreciation clauses and fine print
in their policies.
We welcomed your announcement on Thursday June 26th, 2020 for disaster relief but were
surprised and disappointed to see that it will help fewer than 2.5 % of affected residents.
While they are relieved, so many of the other 97.5 % wonder how they will get beyond
financial ruin.
We are asking you to re-evaluate your announcement and create a plan that will truly help.
1. Convene a round table - virtual or in person, with 3 to 4 people from this group, the
city councilors, the Mayor, your good self, along with MLA’s Sawney, Amery, Toor,
and Yaseen to develop a plan. A suggestion might be to devise an interest free loan
to help affected residents, to get through what some would say the “toughest time
of their lives”
2. Make the formal application to the federal government for Disaster Financial
Assistance Arrangements (a letter to Minister Bill Blair was sent on July 6 from this
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Sincerely,
Khalil Karbani
Ph: 403-999-0707
Email: khalilk@shaw.ca
Representing: