2023 B.C. wildfire season declared DFA eligible: province

B.C. has declared the 2023 wildfire season Disaster Financial Assistance (DFA) eligible, to help communities deal with losses due to raging fires.

According to the province’s website, the program “may provide applicants with financial assistance to restore uninsurable losses that are essential to your home, livelihood or community service.”

“For wildfire events, this funding can serve several purposes, including helping communities rebuild or repair essential public infrastructure like roads and bridges,” Emergency Preparedness Minister Bowinn Ma explained Wednesday.

“It can also help local communities replace essential materials and support expenses related to inspections, appraisals, planning, and design processes needed to determine recovery costs. We are also rapidly increasing our recovery teams’ capacities to help communities.”

BC Emergency Management Minister @BowinnMa says 3,800 people are still on evacuation order across the province. Declares this wildfire season is DFA (Disaster Financial Assistance) eligible event. Latest on @CityNewsVAN pic.twitter.com/30gU3lwRdE

— Monika Gul (@MonikaGul) September 6, 2023

The declaration came as the province announced on Wednesday that 3,800 people remain on evacuation order. Another 34,000 people remained on alert, Ma said.

“This is a substantial reduction from even just a few days ago when we were seeing upwards of 65,000 people on evacuation alert, so we are trending in the right direction there,” she said.

“We are still working with communities on structure losses. You know, these communities have been through something very challenging and very traumatic. Different communities will move at different speeds and we also have wildfire conditions that are different across the province. And so our ability to get back into some areas to make assessments — that will change over time and hopefully improve over time. So that work is still underway. But at this time we are looking at structural losses across the province and in the hundreds. But this is, again, very preliminary right now.”

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The province says the DFA program is available to local governments and First Nations in areas “that have been adversely affected by wildfires this season.”

The authorities in the following regional districts, where public damage by wildfires has been reported, have been deemed eligible:

• Cariboo Regional District
• Columbia Shuswap Regional District
• Fraser Valley Regional District
• Northern Rockies Regional Municipality
• Peace River Regional District
• Regional District Bulkley-Nechako
• Regional District Central Okanagan
• Regional District East Kootenay
• Regional District Kitimat-Stikine
• Regional District North Okanagan
• Regional District of Fraser-Fort George
• Regional District Okanagan-Similkameen
• Squamish-Lillooet Regional District
• Stikine (unincorporated)
• Thompson-Nicola Regional District

First Nations and municipal governments are being encouraged to submit DFA applications as soon as possible. The province says the deadline for applications to be submitted will be “90 days after the end date of the event, which is still to be determined.”

Meanwhile, the province is encouraging anyone whose property has been damaged or destroyed by wildfire to reach out to their insurance representatives, noting, “standard home and business insurance policies cover fire damage and additional living expenses … if residents were required to leave their homes due to an evacuation order issued by their local government or First Nation.”

Community-led recovery efforts are also in motion, while the B.C. government says it has applied for the federal Disaster Financial Assistance Arrangements (DFAA) program, “which provides cost-sharing support for wildfire expenses, such as repairs to roads and public buildings, and cleanup.”