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OTTAWA — The federal government is overhauling the way it reimburses provinces and territories after natural disasters, with a new focus on funding rebuilding efforts that try to prevent the same level of destruction in a future disaster.
The new funding program is also aimed at speeding up the flow of money during recovery efforts. The previous program was criticized for the amount of time it took to make communities whole.
Data provided to The Canadian Press last year showed it took an average of seven years for all assistance to flow following a disaster. Sometimes in took more than a decade.
Under the revised program, Ottawa will offer to reimburse jurisdictions for up to 90 per cent of their rebuilding costs if they rebuild in ways that would offer better protection if the region is hit by another disaster. That could include rebuilding in an area less prone to flooding, for example.
“Rebuilding a home three times over just doesn’t just make any sense,” Emergency Preparedness Minister Harjit Sajjan told The Canadian Press.
“So relocation does matter and this allows us to provide greater support for relocation in some cases.”
The government has been reviewing the Disaster Financial Assistance Program for several years, and in 2022 it’s national adaptation strategy said funds to recover and rebuild after a major event like a flood or wildfire should be tied to building back in ways that adapt to the region’s risk of future events.
The disaster assistance program was created in 1970 and as of 2023 had paid out more than $8.5 billion for 283 disasters. Flooding accounted for almost half of those and more than one-third of the funds have been sent since 2010.
Under the new program the federal government will cover 90 per cent of provinces’ costs for post-disaster mitigation in high-risk areas, and cover half of their costs in non-high risk areas. The territories get 100 per cent of their costs in high-risk areas covered, and 60 per cent in non-high risk areas. Sajjan pointed out that the new program was requested by the provinces and territories.
The federal government says it also will cover up to 40 per cent of the cost of building mitigating infrastructure before a disaster hits — rather than just reacting after an event.
“In the past, you can only fix what was broken,” Sajjan said.
“What this allows us to do is if there was an idea or project a municipality potentially might have had to prevent a future impact of a disaster from taking place, we weren’t able to fund that. This (new program) allows that.”
The change also breaks up the funding streams into five sections, including emergency response, reimbursing small businesses and homeowners for uninsured costs, and recovery assistance.
Sajjan said under the old program, communities had to wait to tally the final costs before applying for reimbursement — though Ottawa has advanced money more often in recent years.
In 2022, an advisory panel — tasked by Ottawa to guide a national plan to better prepare for the impacts of climate change — also recommended a timeline of a year or less to ensure disaster-hit communities are promptly “made whole.”
Sajjan said advance payments used to take up to two years to start flowing. He said the new program aims to cut the wait time down to three months.
The new program comes into effect on April 1.
Sajjan also suggested the government will move forward soon with the a national flood insurance program. Ottawa set aside $15 million for the program in last year’s budget.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 29, 2025.
Nick Murray, The Canadian Press