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A class action lawsuit against the Saskatchewan government’s wildfire response isn’t going ahead, despite a law firm wanting to explore the idea.
“After our preliminary evaluation of the legal complexities, we have determined this matter may not lend itself well to a class action that could be resolved in a reasonable time frame,” Saskatoon-based Procido LLP said in a group email to potential claimants on July 18.
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“We didn’t really have a say in it. Basically their reasoning for not going forward with it was not because there wasn’t a case there — I think they took a couple weeks to actually investigate it,” said Rhonda Werbicki, who lost her Denare Beach home in a wildfire earlier this summer.
“I think what their concern was … is that it could take years to decades to actually have this completed in court.”
Werbicki was one of nearly 100 people who were interested in joining the lawsuit against the province.
“They don’t get paid for anything until there’s actually a decision,” Werbicki added.
“With something taking possibly 20 years in court, that’s a lot of money that they would have to take on at this point and I just don’t think they were in a position to do that.”
Werbicki added she didn’t want to file the lawsuit for the money, but rather to help the government learn from what she said were its mistakes and what went wrong.
“I never wanted compensation in the form of money for any of this. (For) most people I think that I’ve spoken to there is disappointment, but it’s not because of the financial aspect. It’s because we want answers,” Werbicki said.
“We want answers on what happened, where the ball was dropped, that’s what we want. We were hoping to get that if we did have some kind of a lawsuit, and now it just seems like we probably will never get those answers.”
Werbicki thinks most people are just going to have to do their best to move on.
“I’m thinking that’s probably what we have to do — just deal with it and move on. There is a small group of us, myself included, that are still very vocal. I still do contact Scott Moe’s office quite regularly, not because I personally need anything from him right now, but I do want to make sure this never happens again,” she said.
“I do believe there were some missteps in this whole process and unfortunately, we’re paying the price for that. If something good can come out of it, then I really hope that happens.”
— with files from PA Now
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