Federal disaster aid for 2021 B.C. floods taking too long: MP

The federal government estimates it will need to pay almost $3.4 billion for its share of the disaster recovery bills for flooding and landslides that devastated British Columbia's Fraser Valley in November 2021.

But more than two years after that disaster occurred, only about 40 per cent of that has been paid.

«Our communities need this funding now,» said Brad Vis, the Conservative MP for the sprawling, crescent-shaped riding of Mission–Matsqui–Fraser Canyon.

The need is massive, Vis said in an interview with The Canadian Press: from farmers looking to recover lost blueberry crops and rebuild devastated dairy farms, to homeowners whose houses were washed away, to local and provincial efforts to restore roads, bridges and culverts.

One year would be a «reasonable amount of time» for disaster money to flow, Vis said, allowing for engineering plans to be drafted and reviewed by both the local and federal governments.

Any longer and the area remains even more vulnerable to the next storm, he added. Indeed, less than a year would be ideal, he said, «because we don't know what's going to happen the year after.»

Southern B.C. was hit by atmospheric rivers — the kind of rainstorm that triggered the 2021 disaster — in both 2022 and 2023, and fresh downpours prompted another flood warning in January.

But some of the area's infrastructure still hasn't been fixed, Vis said.

In 2022, an advisory panel — tasked by Ottawa to guide a national plan to better prepare for the impact of climate change — also recommended a timeline of a year or less to ensure disaster-hit communities are promptly «made whole.»

But an analysis of data on the federal Disaster Financial Assistance Arrangements (DFAA) program shows it takes on average seven years for