Feds have cut back on disaster assistance

Even as the cost of flood damage has risen in recent years, the provinces have been forced to shoulder more of the burden because the federal government has made it harder for them to qualify for compensation from its disaster relief fund.

“The (federal) government doesn’t want to be in the business of disaster assistance anymore,” says Jason Thistlethwaite, assistant professor at the University of Waterloo. “It’s too expensive.”

After a natural disaster like the current severe flooding affecting parts of Quebec and Ontario, provinces can apply to the federal government to reimburse some of their costs through the Disaster Financial Assistance Arrangements (DFAA) program. In 2015, the Conservative government tripled the amount a provincial government had to spend on disaster relief to qualify for federal compensation. A province’s total relief bill must now be greater than $3.07 per capita before it can apply to Ottawa for funding. In Quebec, for instance, that threshold is about $25 million.

The change was made because Ottawa was doling out far more DFAA money than planned, Thistlethwaite said.

During a premiers’ meeting last summer, the provinces called on the federal government to restore funding for floods and other natural disasters. The changes, they argued, “substantially reduced the federal government’s share of disaster-related costs, off-loading these onto individuals, provinces and territories.”

On Wednesday, Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne’s office said her government “remains committed” to that request.

Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale’s office told the National Post the decision to raise the thresholds was made by the previous government.

In a statement this week, Conservative MP Steven Blaney, public safety minister when the change was made, said he was proud to have modernized the program to “ensure that emergency relief funding continues to be available to Canadians in a more sustainable way.”

Every threshold in the cost-sharing formula was raised at that time. Previously, the federal government would reimburse 90 per cent of costs above $5 per capita — about $41 million in Quebec. Now, that threshold is $15.17 per capita — roughly $124 million in Quebec.

The federal government has indeed been paying out far more than it planned for flood relief in recent years.

Last year, the parliamentary budget officer predicted the disaster assistance program would pay out more than $900 million a year over the next five years, including $673 million a year for flood damage — vastly more than the $100 million a year originally budgeted.

Thistlethwaite said the provinces are also trying to lessen their own costs, by promising assistance only for losses that can’t be insured. Since the major floods in Calgary and Toronto in 2013, many Canadian insurance companies have begun offering overland flood insurance to homeowners.

Now that that’s available, Thistlethwaite said, “everyone is going to pass this on, ultimately to the homeowner.”

That’s not necessarily a bad thing, he believes, as long as people know when they’re at risk of flooding — which many don’t.

“The part that’s missing in this entire story is that we haven’t done a good job educating homeowners.”

But even if Canadians understand the issue, they may be reluctant to open their wallets. A recent survey Thistlethwaite conducted found that while 83 per cent of respondents believe Canadians are responsible for protecting their own property from flood damage, only 23 per cent were interested in buying flood insurance.

Though Ottawa has scaled back its commitment to disaster relief, it has begun to put more emphasis on funding mitigation projects that could help prevent floods in the first place. In 2014, the Harper government launched a national disastermitigation program with $200 million earmarked for risk assessments, flood mapping and other projects.

But last summer, the premiers claimed that amount was “not adequate” to protect against floods, and called for more.

This year’s federal budget included a new $2-billion fund for disaster mitigation and climate-change adaptation. Few details have been released about how and when that money will be spent.