Hotel spaces freed up in Winnipeg for wildfire evacuees, Alberta dealing with shifting winds [Video]

Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew said Monday hotels in Winnipeg are opening up to thousands of evacuees who have fled their homes due to raging wildfires.

Speaking ahead of the premiers’ conference in Saskatoon, Kinew said some 1,000 hotel rooms are being made available for evacuees in the province’s capital city.

“Nobody wants to sleep on a cot for more than a day or two, even in an emergency,” Kinew said.

“We’re connecting folks who need those enhanced accessibility supports first and then broadening it out to everybody else who needs help, too.”

More than 17,000 people have been displaced since last week, including all 5,000 residents of Flin Flon. Emergency centres were set up as available hotel rooms in cities have been scarce.

Some residents from Pimicikamak Cree Nation, east of Flin Flon, were taken to a hotel in Niagara Falls, Ont., beginning Sunday. Around 600 members were expected Monday …