The MLA for Kamloops-South Thompson wants the province to overhaul the disaster financial assistance program – which serves people impacted by floods and wildfires.
As Opposition House Leader, Todd Stone has for the second time introduced a private members bill that calls on the government to simplify the claim process, noting the program has barely changed in 50 years.
The bill would extend the DFA application deadline from 60 to 120 days, and would also develop a grant program for homeowners in high-risk areas who may not be able to afford to high premiums.
“Government can and should take the lead on rewriting the rules here and insuring again that if you live in rural areas around Kamloops or the Okanagan or the Cariboo you’re not going to be left high and dry and the government is going to have your back,” Stone told NL News.
The bill also directs the province to figure out an affordability metric for DFA insurance coverage, and would address issues around parts of the province where no coverage is available floods or fires.
“The reality is these events are happening with greater frequency and intensity and its resulting in massively increased costs for victims and the inability to access insurance in high risk areas,” Stone said.
Stone points to the Monte Lake area – where after the White Rock Lake fire of 2021 – some premiums increased by over 2,000 per cent.
“There’s huge swaths of our province where – number one – if there is insurance for wildfires even available the costs for that insurance have skyrocketed,” he said. “Well I’m sorry – even though that insurance is still available technically it’s not available to a heck of a lot of people who can’t afford the costs of insurance.”
The bill would also remove an exclusion that says DFA support isn’t available for costs related to contents located in basements, crawl spaces or other low-lying storage areas.
His private member’s bill calls for government to:
• Streamlining and simplifying the DFA claim process;
• Setting and defining an ‘affordability’ metric for the DFA’s ‘reasonably and readily’ available insurance criteria;
• Expanding the scope of DFA to address issues pertaining to ‘micro-pockets’ of the province where no insurance coverage is available for a given disaster event;
• Extending the application deadline to 120 days, from the current 60 days from the date DFA was authorized;
• Extending the appeal process to address applications rejected due to missing information;
• Removing an exclusion that will not grant DFA support for costs related to any contents located in basements, crawl spaces or similar low-lying storage areas unless these areas are being used as essential living areas for homeowners; and,
• Developing a government grant program for homeowners in high-risk areas to help offset the high cost of insurance and incentivize individuals to purchase it.
“While we hope we don’t have to re-live the devastating climate events of 2021, the reality is that these occurrences are happening more frequently and with greater intensity — leading to increased costs for disaster victims and the inability to access insurance in high-risk areas,” Stone added.
“While DFA is there to help individuals where insurance is not available, the program has remained largely unchanged for about 50 years, and there is a desperate need to proactively address these new challenges and better protect homeowners and businesspeople.”
