Whereas the Province of BC completed a Preliminary Strategic Climate Risk Assessment for BC in 2019 that found that extreme weather events will continue to worsen across the province in coming years including heat waves and severe river flooding with extreme precipitation events continuing to increase toward 1 in 20 year events becoming 1 and 10 year events or lower; And whereas the Minister for Public Safety and Solicitor General and Emergency Management BC have been working closely with the UBCM Flood and Wildfire Advisory Committee and local governments since mid-2019 to modernize the Emergency Program Act EPA to support local governments in responding and planning for disaster mitigation through phased-in legislative updates beginning in 2022: Therefore be it resolved that UBCM ask that the provincial government, as part of the process of modernizing the EPA legislation, include robust and sustainable building back better funding at 100 per cent as part of the first phase of the updated EPA legislation in 2022, and additionally consider enhancing the Community Resiliency Investment Program to include funding programs for flood related infrastructure improvement.
Ministry of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness Government is committed to ensuring our province and the people who live here are more resilient in the event of a disaster. Following the Atmospheric River Event from November 14 to December 2, 2021, government made significant regulation changes for Disaster Financial Assistance to better support communities recovering from disasters. As a result, Emergency Management BC modified its cost-sharing formula, so provincial contributions increase as the cost of the project goes up. The local authority will pay a minimum of 5 per cent to a maximum of 10 per cent on a per-capita cost-share model. Previously, local authorities were expected to fund 20 per cent of eligible projects. The second change was to support communities in rebuilding critical infrastructure faster, by providing a portion of a projects estimated costs up-front instead of having communities complete projects before submitting to the Province for reimbursement. This change was intended to support necessary cash flow and help to accelerate local recovery planning. The Province partners with communities and the federal government to invest in disaster risk reduction and climate adaptation through several funding programs that support First Nations and local governments. These programs support communities in understanding their risks and take action to reduce the impacts of events. Emergency Management BC encourages communities to apply for the relevant disaster risk reduction funding to support their communities to reduce the risks of climate-related hazards in their community. BC is modernizing its emergency management legislation, with a focus on disaster risk reduction, emergency preparedness, recovery, and climate adaptation. The Province is planning to introduce the new legislation in spring 2023 to incorporate lessons learned during recent years severe and unprecedented weather events. The new legislation, which is being co-developed with Indigenous partners, will enable greater collaboration between the provincial government, Indigenous and local governments. As part of modernization, the Province plans on engaging on changes to the regulations, including the Compensation and Disaster Financial Assistance regulation. Disaster Financial Assistance is currently the only program for the specific purpose of replacing infrastructure unexpectedly destroyed in an eligible disaster. As such, achieving better alignment between the rules governing this key infrastructure recovery funding source and modern principles for increasing disaster resiliency will be a key consideration for moving forward. The federal government has also commissioned an advisory panel to review support provided to provinces and territories through the Disaster Financial Assistance Arrangements program. It is expected the panels recommendations will lead to updates to the program to ensure it supports disaster recovery. The Province will take any changes to the Disaster Financial Assistance Arrangements guidelines into consideration in updating the Disaster Financial Assistance Regulation to ensure that our program incorporates and reflects innovative funding approaches supported by Canada.