TORONTO – The Ontario government says it will compensate people whose food spoiled during prolonged power outages caused by the ice storm.
Premier Kathleen Wynne made the announcement Monday morning at a press conference. She was flanked by officials from various grocery stores including Loblaw and Metro which have each donated $25,000 to help compensate people for the cost of lost food. Those donations will be matched by the Ontario government, Wynne said.
“We’re going to do our very best to give people some compensation for the food that they’ve lost. I believe it’s the least we can do,” Wynne said. “It’s an unfolding program and we’re doing our very best to meet the need.”
Close to $200,000 had been raised for the compensation program by private corporations and the government as of Monday morning.
A large ice storm swept through southern Ontario last week and covered the region in a thick layer of ice that brought down trees and knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of people. At the peak of the outages, 300,000 Toronto Hydro customers and 350,000 Hydro One customers were without power.
Toronto Hydro CEO Anthony Haines estimated power should be restored to everyone by Monday evening.
The program is for those “who can’t” replace the food themselves, Wynne said.
Families whose food had spoiled are eligible for a $100 gift card while individuals can receive a $50 gift card.
In order to claim a gift card, people should go to the closest Ontario Works office with proof of residence and a way of identifying how many people are in their family.
So far the program is available to residents of Toronto, as the city has been the only one to participate, Wynne said.
A full list of Ontario Works office locations can be found by clicking here.
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