$94M for Lebanon rescue, but Canadian evacuee grateful
CBC News | Posted: November 24, 2006 4:45 PM | Last Updated: November 24, 2006
The cost of rescuing nearly 15,000 Canadians from war-torn Lebanon has come in at about $94million — up from a preliminary tally of $76 million —but Charlottetown restaurateur Nawal Abdallah, for one, is grateful the money was spent.
"Canada acted very well," saysAbdallah, who was winding up a two-month vacation with her husband, Maroun, when the conflict between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group broke out in July.
"We were checking our luggage at the airport when it happened," she told CBC News Online on Friday.
It took the couple 10days to get home from Lebanon during the war between Hezbollah and Israel, but they are not complaining.
Themost importantleg of the journey — a trip to Cyprus on a Greek cruise ship courtesy of the Canadian government — tookjust 6½ hours,Nawal Abdallahsaid. "The ship was great."
The Abdallahs run Cedars Eatery, offering Canadian and Lebanesecuisine, on University Avenue in Charlottetown.
The evacuation effort, which involved scores of chartered flights andsailings arranged by harried Canadian officials, was criticized by some evacuees,many of whomsaid they endured heat and chaos on the docks, slow boat ridesand sometimes wretched shipboard sanitation.
In Canada, some politicaland taxpayer groups suggested that thousandsholding dual Canadian-Lebanese citizenship and living in Lebanon should not have been eligible for the help.
Nawal Abdallah has some sympathy for that view.
"I think it was money well spent," she said, "but I think people who have lived there for a number of years should not have been evacuated. I think it should have been reserved for people who were on vacation and young people, children."
The evacuationcost wasposted on Thursday in Finance Minister Jim Flaherty's 2006 economic and fiscal update. Officials had warned that the earlier figure would probably increase substantially when all the bills were in.