By Pepper Parr
December 14, 2015
BURLINGTON, ON.
The Burlington Community Foundation office on the South Service Road will be open until 5:00 pm on Monday which is the last day that applications for financial support under the province’s ODRAP – Ontario Disaster Relief and Assistance Program.
The application is not short; Governments don’t give money away easily, although they have been known to spend it wastefully.
There were streets in Burlington that had a bin in front of almost every house.
The financial assistance is for those who either had no insurance or were under insured. Many people in Burlington live in a part of the city where they cannot buy insurance at any price. Those in the Regal Road area who are close to Tuck and Roseland Creeks were hard hit – and not for the first time.
There are still people who qualify for support who apparently don’t know about the program. There is a family that chose to pay cash for much of the labour they used to repair their home. How they paid for the repairs is not that big a concern; was the work done and is there evidence to show that the work was done?
The Burlington Community Foundation hired an insurance adjustor to guide them through the process. The adjuster works for the Foundation – not some insurance company. They are there to help people work their way through the forms and complete the application.
Mark Preston on the left and Rick Burgess on the right; both are members of the Claims Committee that will oversee the distribution of funds to flood victims
The adjuster passes the applications along to a Claims Committee made up of Mark Preston, Preston Insurance Services; Bruce Russell, Wardell Insurance; Nancy Swietek, Dan Lawrie Insurance and Rick Burgess, Burgess Law Office. It is their job to approve a claim.
The Claims Committee has a delicate task. They have to determine first just how much money is available for distribution. They take the amount that was raised by the community and get an additional $2 for every $1 raised by the community.
That will determine the amount that is available for distribution. Collen Mulholland reports t there were 115 applications in the office on Thursday and that applications were coming in at the rate of 10 a day. She expects something close to 200 applications to be received.
Some applications may not be complete – there are people at the Burlington Community Foundation who understand the forms and are in place to help. But they cannot help if they don’t have an application – and Monday December 15th is the close off date.
Mayor Rick Goldring commented that: “While it is invisible to most of us, there are still people rebuilding their homes and their lives all these months later.” He encourages everyone who is eligible to work through the Burlington Community Foundation to make a claim.”
To apply for funding, visit and click on Make a Claim. If you need help with the application process, call 905-639-0744.
