Freeland says she’s open to feedback on Irma evacuations

Ottawa,Canada’s foreign affairs minister says she is interested in hearing how the government can “do a better job next time” regarding evacuating citizens from foreign disaster zones in the wake of Hurricane Irma.
“In the weeks to come we will be interested to hear from people who were in the region about their experiences and think how we can do a better job next time,” Chrystia Freeland told reporters.
She said that by Tuesday afternoon, nearly 700 Canadians had been flown home safe from Caribbean islands such as St. Martin and Turks and Caicos, which were heavily damaged by Hurricane Irma.
Irma, then a category 5 hurricane, struck St. Martin on the morning of Sept. 6 and passed just south of the Turks and Caicos on the morning of Sept. 7.
By Sunday Sept. 9, American Air National Guard planes had evacuated more than 1,000 citizens out of St. Martin. Venezuela’s air force conducted similar evacuation efforts for its citizens.
Canadians on various islands expressed increasing amounts of frustration as they were left to wait at airports for commercial airliners, not knowing when they would be able to return.
Reports of lawlessness including looting emerged on the islands of Turks and Caicos and St. Martin during this time.
Inhabitants were also becoming increasingly desperate for food and water.
On Monday morning — four days after the hurricane had passed Turks and Caicos — Canadian officials said the local airport authority on the island was not allowing airliners bound for Toronto to leave, citing safety concerns.However, two commercial planes carrying a total of 120 Canadians were able to depart for Pearson later that afternoon.
“That was a decision by the local airport,” Freeland said. “It’s not my job or the job of any of us to comment on local politics in Turks and Caicos or anywhere else but we did work very hard to get those planes off the ground and to get them home.”
As Turks and Caicos is a British dependency, she said that Britain’s ambassador and Foreign Minister Boris Johnston were “very apologetic” when confronted about the delay and worked hard to allow the planes to leave.
One-hundred and fifty Canadians were flown out of St. Martin on Monday afternoon. In total, 301 Canadians and 53 others were brought to Toronto from throughout the Caribbean Monday.
Global Affairs spokesperson Brianne Maxwell said that Canadians were brought back to Canada using commercial airliners instead of military aircraft “since conditions have allowed us to do so,” without elaborating.
Canadian transport officials told the Globe and Mail earlier this week that is standard procedure to use commercial aircraft for evacuations first, and keep military planes on standby as a last resort.
Freeland said a RCAF C-17 cargo plane arrived in Caribbean region on Tuesday.
After delivering supplies, he said it would be “available to evacuate Canadians if that is still needed.”
She said she distributed letters to Canadians who arrived at Pearson on Monday expressing that she was “very sorry for their ordeal.”
“It was a very, very difficult experience for people,” she said.