Support for communities helping people during emergency events

After Hurricane Fiona hit PEI in the fall of 2022, many residents depended on community reception centres for heat, food, Internet, showers, and other services while they were without power.

To help these centres support residents during future emergency events, the provincial government’s Reception Centre Resiliency Fund offers financial assistance to organizations for equipment and to upgrade community spaces to better serve people in their community in times of need.

Milton Community Hall was one of the centres that received upgrades and improvements. 

Shari MacDonald, Miltonvale Park Chief Administrative Officer says the fund helped enormously. The reception centre now has a new generator, a large commercial stand up freezer, refrigerator, signage and a new stove.  A portable air filtration has also been ordered.

“Many people used the community hall after Fiona and they were so relieved to have a welcoming place with running water, internet, food, and flushing toilets,” she recalls. “We had 1,500 people visit during the three weeks after the hurricane, we were very busy.”  

All the upgrades are important MacDonald says, but the new generator was a huge relief. 

“The most important purchase was a 50 kW generator, which will allow us to run the entire building, even the dishwasher, without worrying about overloading the system.”

She says getting support from the Reception Centre Resiliency Fund was much needed and very beneficial given the number of people they assisted after Fiona. 

“The hall was so important to residents and people in neighbouring communities, that we wanted to take advantage of the funding program to make things run more smoothly for the next emergency situation,” she explains. 

“I know that the staff and volunteers at the community centre will be better prepared to accommodate residents in any future emergency, thanks to the new upgrades.”  

To date, the Reception Centre Resiliency Fund has supported 28 community projects through a total of $1,581,723 in financial assistance. 

Locate a community reception centre during an emergency at Search Reception Centres

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