Disaster Financial Assistance (DFA) is now available for eligible British Columbians who may have been affected by overland flooding from heavy rains that began on Jan. 31, 2020, in the following regions:
- Capital Regional District
- Cowichan Valley Regional District
- Regional District of Nanaimo
- Greater Vancouver Regional District
- Fraser Valley Regional District
- Squamish Lillooet Regional District
- Sunshine Coast Regional District
All First Nations communities, electoral areas and municipalities within the geographic boundaries of these regional districts are eligible to apply for assistance.
DFA is available to homeowners, residential tenants, small business owners, farmers, charitable organizations and local government bodies who were unable to obtain insurance to cover these disaster-related losses.
Applications for this DFA event must be submitted to Emergency Management BC (EMBC) by April 4, 2020.
British Columbians can access the DFA application online: http://www.gov.bc.ca/disasterfinancialassistance
Backgrounders
Applicants should be aware of the following:
- Financial assistance is provided for each accepted claim at 80% of the amount of total eligible damage that exceeds $1,000, up to a maximum claim of $300,000.
- Claims may be made in more than one category (e.g., homeowner and farm owner).
- A homeowner or residential tenant must show that the home is their principal residence.
- Seasonal or recreational properties, hot tubs, patios, pools, garden tools, landscaping, luxury items (such as jewelry, fur coats and collectibles) and recreational items (such as bicycles) are not eligible for assistance.
- Small business owners and farm owners must demonstrate that their businesses and farms are their primary source of income.
- Charitable organizations must provide a benefit of service to the community at large.
Assistance is available to local governments for:
- emergency response measures authorized by Emergency Management BC (EMBC) according to response task number.
- These include incremental costs associated with their emergency operations centre.
- Financial assistance is provided for each accepted response claim at 100%.
- Completed response claim summaries and supporting documentation must be sent to the respective EMBC regional office.
- recovery measures to replace essential materials and rebuild or replace essential public infrastructure to the condition it was in before the disaster.
- Assistance is provided for each accepted recovery claim at 80% of the amount of total eligible damage that exceeds $1,000.
https://news.gov.bc.ca/21528