Schedule 1: High-risk areas
Disaster Financial Assistance Arrangements Guidelines

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• Purpose
• Policy intent
• Implementation
• High-risk areas
• Flood hazard
• Other hazards
• Appropriate mitigation
• Determining appropriate mitigation in high flood risk areas

Purpose

The purpose of this Schedule is to provide further detail on how the DFAA Program works in high-risk areas, to describe how high-risk areas are determined, and to outline when appropriate mitigation is required to maintain DFAA eligibility. This Schedule expands on the criteria set out in DFAA Guidelines Section 8.4: Eligibility of Assets in High-Risk Areas and may be updated with information and guidance for different types of hazards as they apply to funding eligibility under the DFAA.

Policy intent

All levels of government and society have a role in ensuring that economic and community development is risk-informed and sustainable in the face of evolving disaster risks. The assistance provided by the DFAA is not intended to contribute to the creation of new disaster risk or delayed action in reducing existing disaster risk. The intent of DFAA eligibility restrictions for assets in high-risk areas is to incentivize land use and development that is risk-informed, sustainable, and limits the exposure for Canadians and all levels of government caused by unmitigated developments in such areas.

Implementation

After April 1, 2025, all existing assets within a designated and/or identified high-risk area will remain initially eligible for the DFAA by default, unless a province/territory or Public Safety Canada had previously (prior to 2025) deemed the asset ineligible for disaster assistance due to its location in a previously-designated high-risk area^{Footnote 1}.

In accordance with Section 8.4 of the DFAA Guidelines, the following assets will be restricted from future/subsequent funding under the DFAA unless appropriate mitigation is applied:

• Assets that are built ^{Footnote 2} in areas designated and/or identified as high risk at the time of construction, which for the DFAA Program is when the project receives approval or a construction permit from the appropriate authority; and
• Assets in high-risk areas that experience major damage in a DFAA-eligible disaster.

Major damage is defined in the DFAA Guidelines Section 1: Definitions and Interpretation. Provinces/territories use their own damage assessment methodologies to determine the level of damage; however, for an eligible disaster, the damage assessment methodology must align with how major damage is defined in the DFAA Guidelines to meet eligibility requirements. It is recommended that provinces/territories confirm their methodologies with Public Safety Canada in advance of a disaster to ensure damage assessments conducted following a disaster include required information for eligibility.

Note: While appropriate mitigation is not required for assets that experience non-major damage, disaster resilience enhancements are strongly encouraged for any damaged assets in high-risk areas, where there is a greater probability of future loss. Disaster resilience enhancement funding is available to assist with building back better in Streams 2 and 3, and Stream 5 provides additional funding for strategic mitigation.

High-risk areas

The DFAA Guidelines outline minimum requirements for defining high-risk areas for different types of hazards. This section provides additional detail on how high-risk areas are identified within the DFAA Program, including how different sources of data can be used for determining eligibility.

Flood hazards

As described in DFAA Guidelines Section 8.4, for flooding, the DFAA definition of high risk is set, at a minimum, at the 1-in-200 year return period flood (i.e., a 0.5% annual exceedance probability). Where provinces/territories employ high-risk designations reflecting hazard levels that are equivalent to the 1-in-200 year return period flood or exceed it (less frequent), the DFAA Program defaults to how the jurisdiction captures high risk in order to support the regulatory work of provinces/territories.

To make eligibility determinations under the DFAA Program, the following sources of data can be used to identify high-risk areas:

Regulatory-quality flood maps

Where publicly available and regulatory-quality flood maps exist within a jurisdiction that depict flood hazard at or equivalent ^{Footnote 3} to the 1-in-200 year return period flood, these are used to identify high-risk areas for DFAA Program eligibility. Provinces/territories can choose to use publicly available and regulatory-quality flood maps that exceed the DFAA's set minimum for the purposes of DFAA Program eligibility.

Note: At this time, Public Safety Canada does not evaluate flood maps beyond confirming the return period. However, when developing new flood maps, it is highly recommended that public sector authorities follow the relevant federal guidance (including the Federal Flood Mapping Guidelines Series), which is designed to advance and standardize floodplain mapping in Canada and enable risk-informed decision-making on the basis of consistent and comparable hazard data.

Federally identified flood risk areas^{Footnote 4}

Where existing maps within the jurisdiction do not show flood hazard extents at or equivalent to the 1-in-200 year (or less frequent) return period flood, and/or where maps do not exist, federally identified flood risk areas are used to screen where high-risk areas may be located for the purposes of DFAA Program eligibility. When the outcomes of this screening determine a structure to be in a high-risk area, a local or site-specific assessment can be used to identify the site-specific level of flood risk.

Following the initial release, the federally identified flood risk areas will be updated on an established cycle. Provinces/territories will receive notice of any changes and access to updated federally identified flood risk areas in advance. For the purpose of DFAA Program eligibility, federally identified flood risk areas come into effect on January 1 of the year after provinces/territories receive the data.

Note: Due to the current level of uncertainty associated with pluvial risk in the federal flood risk model, locations in a federally identified flood risk area for which the only flood generating mechanism is pluvial, appropriate mitigation is not required at this time. However, in such cases, it is strongly recommended to undertake further investigation and mitigation of pluvial flood risk, especially where damage occurred from a pluvial event. There are multiple funding mechanisms for pluvial flood risk assessment and mitigation within the DFAA Program. By 2030, pluvial flood risk will be included in the definitions of high risk, so provinces/territories are encouraged to consider developing regulatory-quality pluvial flood maps which identify high-risk areas.

The section on Determining appropriate mitigation in high flood risk areas outlines how provinces/territories can determine which source of data to use for the identification of high-risk areas for flooding and whether appropriate mitigation is required for future DFAA eligibility.

Other hazards

Wildfire hazard

(Placeholder for future minimum designations of high risk, once available.)

Earthquake hazard

(Placeholder for future minimum designations of high risk, once available.)

Other hazards

(Placeholder for future minimum designations of high risk, once available.)

Appropriate mitigation

As per Section 1 of the DFAA Guidelines, appropriately mitigated is defined as when "an asset in an identified and/or a designated high-risk area is resilient to the identified high risk, which means it is protected in such a way that it will not experience major damage from natural hazard events that are at or lower than the identified high-risk level. Appropriate mitigation may include a combination of property-level mitigation (e.g., seismic retrofits, elevated ground floors) and community-level mitigation (e.g., dikes or adaptation measures, community FireSmart initiatives)."

The requirement for appropriate mitigation is limited to structures such as buildings, infrastructure, or public spaces. It does not apply to belongings or items.

Appropriate mitigation has different requirements depending on the hazard that is creating the high risk and the type and nature of the asset. At a minimum, it must include activities that are expected to prevent major damage at the level of the high-risk designation/identification. For some types of assets, even with significant investment, it may not be possible or appropriate to eliminate risk; therefore, an appropriately mitigated asset could still experience non-major damage in the future which might require restoration activities such as cleaning, debris removal, or minor/moderate repairs.

Appropriate mitigation is generally determined at a site level and must be confirmed by a suitably qualified professional ^{Footnote 5} to enable eligibility for the DFAA Program in the future. This confirmation is not intended as a guarantee that an asset will not experience major damage. If an asset is appropriately mitigated as defined above, and still experiences major damage in a future DFAA-eligible event, it remains eligible for the DFAA Program.

The requirement to appropriately mitigate applies regardless of the hazard that caused the damage. For example, if a piece of infrastructure is rebuilt following major wind damage but is in a high-risk area for flooding, it is required to appropriately mitigate for the flood risk in order to qualify for the DFAA Program in the future – just as it would if it were undergoing a significant rebuild without a disaster.

For the purposes of the DFAA Program, appropriate mitigation may include a combination of different actions, both at the property level and the community level, as long as the collective result achieves the required level of mitigation. Some example mitigation activities are listed below:

• Property-level mitigation, such as structural retrofits, anchoring free-standing furniture or water heaters to walls, bolting structures to the foundation, elevating the ground floor or critical systems, property grading, installing sump pumps or backflow prevention valves, fire-resistant siding or roofing, FireSmart landscaping, etc.
• Community-level mitigation (including structural and non-structural mitigation), such as community-level FireSmart landscaping, bylaws regulating types of construction in certain hazard areas, projects designed to 'make room for the river' or protective natural infrastructure for waterways, shoreline armouring or protection, breakwaters, relocating essential assets in high-risk areas, raising dikes or levees or berms, updating building codes to include resilience to major hazards, etc.

Note: Appropriate mitigation as outlined in this Schedule establishes a minimum level of resilience, which may not be sufficient for all types of assets. A higher level of resilience may be needed for types of essential assets and infrastructure that must remain functional during and after a disaster (e.g., a hospital, fire hall, water treatment plant, etc.). Where a higher level of resilience is required by applicable codes and standards in the jurisdiction, costs to meet that requirement are eligible in Stream 3 (see DFAA Guidelines Section 11). If a public sector authority increases the resiliency of the asset beyond required codes and standards, these expenses may be eligible as disaster resilience enhancements (see DFAA Guidelines Schedule 3) or Stream 5 Strategic Mitigation (see DFAA Guidelines Section 13).

Determining appropriate mitigation in high flood risk areas

This section outlines the steps for determining the requirement for appropriate mitigation in high flood risk areas to maintain eligibility under the DFAA Program. This applies to assets built after April 1, 2025, and assets that experience major damage in a DFAA-eligible disaster. The steps are shown in both diagram and written form.

Date modified:

2025-04-29