It is estimated that over the next five years claims for floods and other natural disasters will cost Canadians $902 million.

The Parliamentary Budget Officer released the report indicating the average annual cost for disaster financial assistance arrangements due to weather events. The report estimates the expected additional average annual cost to the Disaster Financial Assistance Arrangements (DFAA) program over the next five years.

Over the past five years DFAA liabilities have increased substantially because of a number of weather events that have caused heavy damage. As a result, DFAA’s annual transfers to the provinces have been much higher than its nominal appropriation of $100 million.

PBO estimates that over the next five years (i.e. 2016/17 to 2021/22), the DFAA program can expect claims of $229 million per year because of hurricanes, convective storms and winter storms and $673 million for floods, for a total of $902 million.

The data shows that the DFAA costs resulting from floods are the largest of the weather events at $673 million and represent 75 per cent of DFAA’s weather expenditures. This high proportion is partly due to the lack of privately available flood insurance in Canada. Over the past 10 years (2005-2014), Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta have accounted for 82 per cent of all DFAA weather event costs, almost all of which are a result of flooding, despite accounting for only 18 per cent of Canada’s population.