Wheatley residents face longer displacement

Officials anticipate needing eight more weeks to examine whether the gas that caused an explosion in Wheatley on August 26th of last year originates from a single or multiple sources, "At the end of those eight weeks the expert consulting team is meant to provide mitigation options. Those mitigation options are estimated to take six weeks to complete," said Assistant Deputy Minister Jennifer Barton.

The investigations bring the timeline to mid-May but according to Barton it may not take that long. Some residents feel the timeline to return home is longer than they were hoping for.

"It will be a year before we tentatively get our lives back," said Steve Ingram whose home on the far east edge of the evacuated area.

Chatham-Kent fire chief Chris Case acknowledged the evacuation zone is the safest it has been since the explosion and reducing it to allow residents back into their homes is continuously discussed.

"The minute those engineers give us the agreement and that notification that it should be reduced that's exactly what will happen as quickly as possible." 

Sean McFarland, expert consultant with Golder, doesn’t want investigations to be rushed only to find another gas leak in the future.

"We're doing a thorough job and we want to end up with a permanent safe solution so everybody can move back in with confidence. That's our goal."

A hot topic during today's briefing was the Wheatley Resident Assistance Program which comes to an end March 31^st, "It's an urgent situation for people and something we understand is something we need to work on as quickly as we can," said Heather Collins, Municipal Services Director for the Ministry of Municipal Affairs & Housing. 

With insurance policies covering evacuation depleted or coming to an end later this month some have already paid out of pocket and many are worried money will run out.

"We understand there are rules and regulations. We're not trying to make money. We'll send you the receipt, you pay the bill. That's all we ask," said Ingram.

It is the Municipality of Chatham-Kent’s position that residents affected will not find themselves on the street, "I want to reiterate that we will do whatever we can to assist residents to make sure nobody is unsheltered,"  said April Rietdyk, GM of Community Human Services.