The natural disasters that affect our populations always cause a heavy financial burden and also food losses. Last fall, following the passage of hurricane Fiona, hard-hit Nova Scotia offered financial compensation for food losses for every resident. For the ice, Quebec could follow suit.
With the freezing rain falling on Quebec last week, many households and businesses had to get rid of tons of food products. An inevitable waste, or almost. While various businesses gave their stock outright to passers-by at the last minute, some will make a claim with their insurance while others will suffer losses.
For residents, the loss of food is a very costly problem, especially these days with the price of food. Most home insurance policies do not cover food loss due to natural disaster.
After 24 hours in the dark, the fridge must be emptied, and after 48 hours, the contents of the freezer must also be thrown away. Time is unforgiving, and households affected by an outage last week had to throw away an average of $200 to $500 worth of food to avoid food contamination.
A few days before Easter, the amount was probably higher than usual, but for people with health problems, it was important not to take any risks.
Meanwhile, some are wondering if the province should compensate residents who lost food due to a major power outage following a natural disaster like the ice storm. The answer is very simple: Quebec should not even hesitate.
Last fall, following the passage of hurricane Fiona, the province of Nova Scotia had compensated the residents. More than 500,000 subscribers in the province had been without power for several days. Hurricane Spoiled Food Program Fiona had been set up to compensate for the losses of the residents. The program provided $100 to each household that lost power for at least 48 hours in the aftermath of the hurricane Fiona to help cover the cost of spoiled food.
A total of 117,000 households received their $100 during the program. About 23% of those eligible have claimed their share. Signing up on the online application took only 30 seconds, at most, and a check was mailed to them two or three weeks later. A small percentage of the population took advantage of it, but the program existed for them.
An unexpected gesture, but greatly appreciated. A modest sum, because one buys few things with $100 at the grocery store, but this amount became symbolic. A message well received by all.
In recent years, food has taken on a precious aspect of our lives. The Quebec government already recognizes this with its food self-sufficiency strategy. These concrete actions that the province has been taking for several years support the province’s agri-food destiny. The state exists for that.
It sometimes happens, especially these days, that governments politicize food to launch programs already tied up. Consider the “grocery discount” proposed by the Trudeau government a few weeks ago. It is no more and no less than an enhanced GST program. It will surely help a certain number of citizens, but the intention behind it is to gain valuable political support.
The same phenomenon was observed in Quebec last fall, when Prime Minister Legault offered money to help Quebecers counter the effects of inflation. On the eve of elections, this gesture was motivated by the potential obtaining of additional votes.
However, food compensation for people affected by the ice storm would not wear the hat of politics, but would rather convey humanism and compassion.
Compensating citizens, if only with $100, would become a purely symbolic gesture, but oh so important for support, sympathy and recognition of the importance of food in our lives.
Governments will have to get used to it. We can try to convince ourselves that these phenomena rarely occur and that burying all the wires would protect us from natural disasters, but climate change is happening more and more and there will always be risks.
For household food losses, government authorities must be more present to help communities.