Feds visit Lower Mainland in flood recovery effort

With large scale work still needed to help B.C. communities recover from November’s catastrophic flooding, the process of figuring out the total federal support is still underway.

Emergency Preparedness Minister, Bill Blair, is visiting the Lower Mainland this week as he meets with mayors of cities and towns that were hit the hardest, in addition to local First Nations leaders.

“The message to us was clear – the cost exceeded what they are able to bear and they seek our support. We’ve also heard about the need for proper governance and priority setting for the rebuilding of critical infrastructure within their communities, ” Minister of Public Safety, Mike Farnworth said.

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Once the sum of the cost of damage is totaled, the federal government is expected to chip in around $4 billion for rebuilding and prevention efforts.

“We’re working really closely with the B.C. government over the past several weeks and months in order to facilitate their submission. Now, we do have a preliminary submission of approximately $4 billion at this point. But I want to be very clear, this is a preliminary ask from from the province of British Columbia and we’re working together because we see the urgency, ” Blair explained.

Blair says he and Farnworth will be meeting with the Emergency Planning Secretariat and an organization representing 31 First Nations in Abbotsford Tuesday to discuss the rebuilding effort.

“Today I can share that we have received British Columbia’s Disaster Financial Assistance arrangement submission, and our federal officials are working expeditiously to review the claims and to get the reimbursement funds moving as quickly as possible. Working together we can strengthen our resilience and response capabilities to better protect people from future disasters and to ensure that we build back in a stronger way,” Blair added.

November’s floods caused catastrophic damage in Abbotsford, but there has been significant work to rebuild in the months since, according to the city’s mayor.

In an update in early March, Mayor Henry Braun said repairs have been complete for half of the 300 sites initially identified as being damaged.

In February, the Canada-BC Flood Recovery for Food Security Program was introduced, which included funding from the province, making use of the federal government’s AgriRecovery Framework and Disaster Financial Assistance Arrangements (DFAA). It’s being billed as the largest recovery program for the sector in the province’s history.

However, many residents and business owners impacted by the floods are waiting to hear how Tuesday’s discussions will improve the situation.