Parliamentary Committee Notes: Status of the National Disaster and Mitigation Program
Date: March 4 2022
Classification: Unclassified
Branch / Agency: EMPB/Public Safety
Proposed Response:
- Flooding continues to be the most frequent and costly natural disaster facing Canadians, causing over $1 billion in direct damage to homes, property and infrastructure annually.
- The National Disaster Mitigation Program, which was stood up in 2015, supports the Government of Canada's commitment to work collaboratively with provinces, territories and Indigenous communities to build safer and more resilient communities by funding small scale structural and non-structural flood mitigation projects.
- Since the NDMP’s inception, the Federal Government has introduced other streams of mitigation programming, including the Disaster Mitigation and Adaptation Fund, intended to support infrastructure projects to help all communities across the country better manage the risks of disasters triggered by natural hazards; and funding to collaborate with provinces, territories and Indigenous communities to complete flood maps for areas at the highest risk of flooding.
Financial Implications:
- The NDMP will be sunsetting on March 31, 2022, however the program’s terms and conditions will be extended to March 2023 to allow project partners additional time for the completion of projects which were delayed by COVID-19 related challenges.
- The 2019 Evaluation of the NDMP outlined that, although there is a continued need for a national approach to support investments in flood disaster mitigation, there is a need for mitigation programming that will consider interplay between all hazards to increase resilience in Canadian communities.
- Public Safety Canada is currently examining approaches for future, all-hazards mitigation programming.
Background:
Disaster mitigation involves proactive measures to eliminate the risk of disasters before they occur in order to protect lives, property, the environment and reduce economic and social disruptions. Mitigation measures are divided into two complementary categories: non-structural measures (e.g. risk assessment, flood mapping, land use planning) and structural measures (e.g. floodways).
The National Disaster Mitigation Program (NDMP) was implemented in April 2015 as a 5-year program with an allocated budget of $200M to reduce the impacts of natural disasters on Canadians by focusing investments on significant, recurring flood risk and costs, and to facilitate the creation of a private residential insurance for overland flooding. The Program provides financial support to provinces (up to 50%) and territories (up to 75%) for cost-shared projects such as: risk assessments; flood mapping; mitigation planning; non-structural mitigation projects; and small-scale structural projects where PS may provide up to $1.5M in funding for structural projects to Provinces and $2.25M to Territories.
Economic and Fiscal Snapshot 2020 announced a two-year renewal of the NDMP with an additional $25M.
NDMP funding ends on March 31, 2022. Of note, the NDMP Terms and Conditions will be amended to extend the program (unfunded) to March 2023 to allow project partners additional time for the completion of projects delayed by COVID-19 related challenges.
As of spring 2022, the Program has funded 460 mitigation projects across Canada. No agreement was reached with the Province of Quebec, given issues of misalignment with the Province’s programs and challenges related to Canada and Québec positions on key agreement clauses. Québec also made significant investments in its own provincial flood mitigation programming following the 2017 and 2019 major flood across the province. Nunavut did not participate in the program as well stating that flood does not affect their territory.
In accordance with the Treasury Board Policy on Results, an evaluation of the NDMP was conducted in 2019. Key findings from the evaluation include the following:
- there is a continued need for a national approach to support investments in flood disaster mitigation measures;
- the NDMP contributed to an increase in the number of Canadian communities that undertook mitigation investment projects to reduce their vulnerability to flood disasters;
- the Program has been very successful in helping small communities mitigating the social and economic costs of floods, and funded projects in communities with a higher representation of seniors and Indigenous People; and,
- the administration of the program is complex and burdensome on both the recipients and Public Safety (PS) staff.
Related Investments in Flood Mitigation and Emergency Management
Since the NDMP’s inception, the Federal Government has introduced other streams of mitigation. For example, PS is working closely with Natural Resources Canada and Environment and Climate Change Canada to create to flood maps of high-flood risk areas across Canada under the Flood Hazard Identification and Mapping Program (FHIMP).
The Department also works closely with other other federal partners to ensure that existing federal infrastructure funding is targeting areas at high risk of flood. PS participates in the project selection committee for the Disaster Mitigation and Adaptation Fund (DMAF), which is administered by Infrastructure Canada. Budget 2021 provided an additional $1.375 billion to the $2 billion originally provided in 2018 for this program. DMAF is designed to support both small- and large-scale infrastructure projects to help communities better prepare for and withstand natural disasters, extreme weather events, and climate change impacts. The majority of these projects are related to flood mitigation.
Financial Management of Flood Risk
A market for private flood insurance has been developing in Canada since 2015. However, up to 15 percent of homes in Canada are located in high risk areas. The insurance industry considers a significant proportion of these as ‘uninsurable’ – meaning that insurers are unwilling to offer homeowners affordable flood insurance because of the high likelihood the property will suffer flooding. These properties are currently eligible for Federal, provinces and territories (FPT) disaster financial assistance, which varies across the country.
Announced in the 2020 Economic and Fiscal Snapshot, funding has been made available to PS and Indigenous Services Canada (ISC) to support the creation of a Task Force to develop options for a national high-risk flood insurance program and a national action plan for potential relocation. The Task Force began its work in January 2021, and brings together representatives from Federal, Provincial and Territorial (FPT) governments and the insurance industry with a view to examine alternative viable options for the insurance program and potential elements of a relocation action plan. Concurrently, ISC is working with First Nations partners on a dedicated Steering Committee on First Nations Home Flood Insurance Needs to examine the unique context on reserves. Both entities began their work by January 2021 and will report on their findings by Spring 2022.
Contacts:
Prepared by: Nelson Ferguson
Approved by: Trevor Bhupsingh, Assistant Deputy Minister, Emergency Management and Programs Branch, 613-993-4325
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