The federal government said it will be providing more than $500,000,000 to British Columbia in order to assist with ongoing recovery expenses following the devastating floods of 2021.
The announcement of a $556,955,880 payment to the province through the Disaster Financial Assistance Arrangements (DFAA) programme was made by federal minister for emergency preparedness Bill Blair on Thursday in Abbotsford, one of the many areas severely affected by flooding in November 2021.
The amount of money given to British Columbia overall through that programme has now surpassed $1 billion, according to the Canadian government.
On Nov. 13, 2021, heavy rain began to fall across much of the province. Within days, communities were virtually underwater as thousands of people were displaced and farmlands were destroyed. Thousands of livestock perished and five people died in a mudslide as a result of the downpour.
The rains swelled numerous rivers, which washed away bridges and stretches of highway, cutting off the Lower Mainland from the rest of the country.
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“The area was unrecognizable,” Abbotsford–Mission MLA and Minister of Agriculture Pam Alexis said on Thursday.
“It was just unimaginable the kind of damage we saw.”
More than a year later, British Columbians are still rebuilding, and some say they’ve only received disaster relief funding in the last few months.
John Jongema, a farmer on the Sumas Prairie, told CBC he’s still working to fix the damage to his shed after it was damaged by floodwaters.
“I walk around the neighborhood and there’s still three or four homes just on my street that haven’t been rebuilt,” he said, noting that he’s worried the region isn’t ready to withstand another major atmospheric river event.
In the B.C. Interior, Merritt cattle rancher Rhonda MacDonald said the river is running where her land used to be.
“We have huge hayfields that the river ran over,” she explained, adding that she lost nearly three hectares of land and nearly $1 million worth of fencing and other farm implements.
The Insurance Bureau of Canada has estimated the cost of insured flood damage was at least $450 million, making it the most expensive disaster in B.C. history.
Provinces and territories can apply for DFAA assistance in the event of a large-scale disaster within six months of it happening.
Once the event has been designated under the DFAA, provinces and territories have up to five years to submit their final claim, to cover the cost of things like evacuation operations, restoring public works and infrastructure and replacing or repairing basic, essential personal property of individuals, small businesses or farms.
Blair said the province will work with First Nations, regional and municipal governments and businesses to determine how the money will be allocated.
Story adapted from CBC
