Disaster Financial Assistance Arrangements

Disaster Financial Assistance Arrangements (DFAA) is a program of the Government of Canada that provides financial assistance to provincial and territorial governments following large-scale natural disasters.

Provinces can apply to the program for assistance when eligible costs exceed one dollar per capita,[1] at which point the federal government will share 50% of the cost. If the costs exceed $3 per capita this rises to 75%, and when costs reach $5 per capita, the federal government is required to pay 90 per cent of the costs.[2][3]

Since its inception in 1970, a 2011–12 report stated that the program had paid out $2 billion in post-disaster assistance.[4] Following the 2013 Alberta floods, $2 billion was earmarked for the province and the government sought a $689-million increase in funding for the program from parliament.[5]

The program has come under criticism for favouring some provinces over others, and for not including public health emergencies in its remit.[6]

DFAA Payments 2007 to 2011[4]
Province/Territory $ millions
British Columbia 72
Alberta 68
Northwest Territories 60
Yukon 32
Nunavut 30
Saskatchewan 17
Manitoba 12
Ontario 3
Quebec 2
New Brunswick 1
Nova Scotia 1
Prince Edward Island 0
Newfoundland and Labrador 0
TOTAL 298

Events that have received funding include 1996 Saguenay Flood, 1997 Red River flood, 2010 Hurricane Igor in Newfoundland and the 2011 Assiniboine River Flood.

References

  1. Fekete, Jason (June 27, 2013). "Alberta flooding unlikely to stymie federal plans to slay deficit". Postmedia Network. Retrieved 9 February 2014.
  2. Flanagan, Tom (June 27, 2013). "Some hard-headed thinking about living by the water". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 9 February 2014.
  3. "Disaster Financial Assistance Arrangements (DFAA)". Government of Canada. Retrieved 9 February 2014.
  4. "2011 - 20 12 Evaluation of the Disaster Financial Assistance Arrangement s Program" (PDF). Public Safety Canada. Retrieved 9 February 2014.
  5. Thompson, Elizabeth (Nov 7, 2013). "Alberta to get $2B in federal flood clean up relief, supplementary estimates reveal". iPolitics. Retrieved 9 February 2014.
  6. Doern, G. Bruce; Johnson, Robert (2006). Rules, Rules, Rules, Rules: Multilevel Regulatory Governance. University of Toronto Press. p. 342. ISBN 9780802038586. Retrieved 9 February 2014.
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