With the Broncos having announced the hiring of a new head coach and general manager and the team beginning to add pieces as they get set to return to the ice for the 2018-2019 season, the organization continues working behind the scenes as they look to continue their support for the Humboldt Bronco families.
After raising more than $15 million from a GoFundMe page immediately after the accident, and receiving more than $14.6 million after deductions, the Broncos submitted material to the Court of Queen’s Bench as the next step on the path to distributing the money to the families of the 29 victims of the accident.
Submitting documents to the Court of Queen’s Bench is standard procedure in a situation this large, and is part of government legislature from 2015.
The Saskatchewan Government enacted the Informal Public Appeals Act in 2015, which outlines a court supervised process that supports the distribution of funds raised through crowd funding efforts.
After submitting the documents, the Humboldt Broncos Memorial Fund Inc. (HBMFI), the non-profit corporation created to oversee the allocation of the funds, received notice that they were required to attend its Initial Order Application hearing in Saskatoon on Aug. 13.
During that hearing the Broncos will be asked to make an order, which will see them make four smaller decisions.
The first of those will be to appoint an advisory committee, who will help determine the appropriate allocation of the funds.
Through a press release sent out by the club, they have announced parts of the committee, which will include four-time Olympic champion Hayley Wickenheiser; recently retired Court of Queen’s Bench Judge Dennis Ball; owner of True North Sports and Entertainment, the parent company of the Winnipeg Jets, Mark Chipman; surgeon and department head at the University of Saskatchewan College of Medicine and former Huskies hockey player Dr. Peter Spafford; and Executive Director at the Canadian Centre for Threat Assessment and Trauma Response Kevin Cameron, as well as three “Information Resource Persons,” who are not yet named.
The club will also be required to approve investment of the donated funds into a high interest savings account at RBC Dominion Securities Inc., make certain declarations regarding the application of the Informal Public Appeals Act, and approve an interim distribution, which would see each of the families receive $50,000.
“Because the required Saskatchewan court processes may take some months to complete, we have asked the Court to consider, with some urgency, the dispersal of payments of $50,000 to each of the sixteen victims’ families and to the thirteen survivors,” said Darrin Duell, chair of the HBMFI in a press release.
“The mandate of the HBMFI is to ensure those impacted families receive funds as expeditiously as possible.”
With the process heading before the courts, the HBMFI launched a website at www.hbmfund.com, which will be used to provide information about the fund, and will provide ongoing updates as information becomes available.
“Our focus remains, as it has since the outset, on supporting our families,” said Broncos president Kevin Garinger in the release. “They are aware of this process, as well as our ongoing commitment to ensuring that the GoFundMe monies are appropriately dispersed.
