N.B. changes maximum payouts, buyout thresholds for homeowners' disaster financial assistance program

New Brunswick has made changes to how its disaster financial assistance is provided to address the financial implications of more frequent and larger-scale events.

In New Brunswick, and across the country, the frequency and severity of heavy rain, spring freshets, ice-jam flooding, freezing rain, severe winds, tropical and post-tropical storms, and sea-level rise are causing:

• increased flooding
• erosion
• power interruptions
• damage to infrastructure and property
• pressures on emergency response

“In New Brunswick over the past nine years, there have been 12 events that have prompted the need for disaster financial assistance,” said Public Safety Minister Kris Austin in a news release Wednesday.

“Over that span, New Brunswick has sustained an estimated total of $369 million in damage. All the provinces and the federal government are struggling with the rising costs and how to address them.”

Of the changes, three were made to help people leave areas prone to flooding and encourage property owners to manage their own risks.

Those include:

• increasing the maximum payout for structural damage
• setting a cap on the amount of assistance paid for any property for the same type of disaster
• lowering the threshold for buyouts for those affected by floods

INCREASING MAXIMUM PAYOUT

Before the changes, the maximum amount a homeowner could file for was $160,000 per incident causing structural damage.

CAP PAYOUT

The province says that limit has been increased and capped at $200,000 for private homes for claims related to the same type of disaster, like flooding and coastal storm surge.

As an example, the province says if a property is damaged three times by overland flooding, and the property makes claims of $60,000, $60,000 and $80,000, the property owner can no longer make another claim related to overland flooding.

Once the $200,000 limit has been reached, the province says a notice will be placed on the provincial government's land registry stating the property is no longer eligible for the government's disaster financial assistance funding for inland or coastal flooding.

HOMEOWNER BUYOUT LIMITS  

The homeowner buyout threshold has also been changed.

Previously, damage had to be 80 per cent of the property's fair market value to be offered a buyout.

With the new changes, the threshold has been changed to 50 per cent arising from one event, and 80 per cent accumulated across multiple disasters, such as flooding.