Special financial assistance was announced Saturday morning by the Quebec government to cover food losses suffered by beneficiaries of social assistance programs following power outages.
Several thousand Quebec homes remain without electricity, a week after the passage of violent storms.
Social assistance recipients who have been affected by an outage lasting more than 24 hours are eligible for this assistance of $75 per person. The maximum amount for each family is $300.
“It is essential to support the most vulnerable people in our society,” Labor Minister Jean Boulet said in a statement on Saturday.
At 7:30 a.m. on Saturday, approximately 8,900 customers, mainly in the Laurentians, Lanaudière and Outaouais, were still affected by the outage which began last Saturday or Sunday, according to a press release from Hydro-Québec.
However, according to the state company’s Info-pannes website, more than 18,000 homes are without power as of late Saturday morning.
“New outages have been declared in the last hours in the Laurentians region, thus increasing the total toll of outages in Quebec. The already weakened vegetation is affected by heavy precipitation, which causes it to sag on the network and cause new outages,” explained Hydro-Québec in a press release.
Interventions are still necessary on more than 1100 sites. Repairs, in sometimes distant sectors, only restore service to a small number of customers at a time, it is specified.
In Ontario, 19,000 Hydro Ottawa customers are still without power. Nearly 27,000 Hydro One customers are also affected by the outages on Saturday morning.
Hydro One anticipates that 99% of customers affected by the storm will be reconnected to the grid. However, the company warns that stricken customers in the Bancroft, Perth and Tweed areas are expected to be without power for several more days or even weeks.
Bad weather last Saturday killed at least 11 people in Ontario and Quebec. The latest death, reported Thursday, is that of a 58-year-old man who OPP say was struck by a falling tree in a remote area of the town of Marmora & Lake.