A federal report to Parliament recommended limiting federal disaster aid where municipalities allow development on flood plains..The cabinet-appointed task force raised concerns about the financial burden on taxpayers to compensate owners of expensive waterfront property that's not insurable.. Regina FloodingRegina Ring Road flooding on July 19 2022 .“Many governments permit developments in high-risk areas and choose not to purchase insurance for public infrastructure because they can rely on the program to pay for the majority of damage costs in the event of a disaster,” said the final report of the Expert Advisory Panel on the Disaster Financial Assistance Arrangements program..“Municipalities may be disincentivized to provide adequate risk information to property owners or developers, especially for high yield taxable properties such as those on waterfronts because the financial responsibility for damages falls to the program when insurance is not available, which is currently the case for areas at the highest risk of flooding,” said the report..Payouts to provinces and territories averaged $400 million a year as recently as 2008 but were “projected to reach an annual average of $15.4 billion by 2030,” said the report..According to the report, climate change was one factor behind increasing costs..Factors including “urbanization, population growth, demographic changes, rising asset values and continued development in high-risk areas” were to blame for costlier floods, said the report Building Forward Together..“The increasing risk requires urgent action across all levels of government and all of society.”.The panel recommended “restrictions on how funds are used to rebuild assets in high-risk areas.” .According to the Insurance Bureau of Canada, about a million homes or 20% of properties on flood plains, are ineligible for private insurance..“It has become clear the program must do more to address the disproportionate impacts of disasters on vulnerable populations and to incentivize risk reduction and build long-term resilience to disasters,” said the report..Continuing to compensate for uninsurable waterfront property was unfair to taxpayers..“As the funder of last resort, the federal government pays on average 82% of eligible disaster costs, but has limited involvement in pre-disaster decisions and investments in prevention, mitigation and preparedness,” wrote the advisory panel..“This contributes to an incentive structure in which the majority of disaster costs are borne by the level of government that has minimal influence on decisions that create or increase disaster risk.”.According to Blacklock’s Reporter, development on flood plains is so commonplace that 2018 hearings of the Senate Environment committee were told flooding was a greater threat to home values than higher mortgage rates..“The most material impact right now relative to home valuation is not, in my opinion, a 25-basis point rise in interest rates,” testified Blair Feltmate, professor at the University of Waterloo’s Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation..“It’s the growing degree to which basements are flooding in Canada and people don’t have insurance coverage.”
