Disaster Risk Reduction Incentive
Self-Assessment

On this page:

• Context
• Self-Assessment
  • Section 1: Understanding Risk
    • Table 1.1: Flood risk
    • Table 1.2: Wildfire risk
    • Table 1.3: One additional natural hazard
    • Table 1.4: Public alerting
    • Table 1.5: Risk Communication and Disclosure
  • Section 2: Mitigation Planning
    • Table 2.1: Strategic Mitigation Plan
    • Table 2.2: Sharing Mitigation Lessons
    • Table 2.3: Supporting Local Authorities
    • Table 2.4: Local Authority Disaster Mitigation Plans
    • Table 2.5: Leveraging Disaster Resilience Enhancements and Strategic Mitigation Funding in the DFAA
  • Section 3: Pre-Disaster Recovery Planning
    • Table 3.1: Pre-Disaster Recovery Plan
    • Table 3.2: Disaster Recovery Indicators
    • Table 3.3: Sharing Recovery Lessons
    • Table 3.4: Supporting Local Authorities
    • Table 3.5: Local Authority Disaster Recovery Plans

Context

The Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) Incentive is a component of the Disaster Financial Assistance Arrangements (DFAA) Program and focuses on high-impact disaster risk reduction activities across three priority areas:

• Understanding risk
• Mitigation planning
• Pre-disaster recovery planning

Each priority area includes a number of different activities that contribute to reducing disaster risk and improving recovery outcomes, which will be updated over time to incentivize continuous improvement in disaster risk reduction. Provinces/territories can receive credits for different activities completed in each priority area. The total number of credits then translates into the financial incentive in the DFAA.

For more information on the DRR Incentive and the DFAA, consult Section 14 of the DFAA Guidelines and Schedule 4.

Download a copy Disaster Risk Reduction Incentive - Self-Assessment

Self-Assessment

Section 1: Understanding Risk

Flood Risk

Activity

The province/territory maps, monitors, and regulates its flood risk.

Criteria

Hazard Mapping

• To receive credit, flood hazard maps must meet both the quality and coverage criteria

Quality

• Current: Have been updated within the past twenty years
• Publicly accessible: Available free of charge in a digital format through an online platform
• Authoritative: Be of regulatory quality for the jurisdiction
• Flood hazard designation: The minimum designation of high risk for flood hazard is at or equivalent to the 1-in-200 year return period flood

Coverage

• Flood hazard maps cover at least 50% of the potential risk area or at least 80% of the population, including major critical infrastructure

Hazard Monitoring

Hazard monitoring means the systematic and ongoing observation of environmental conditions, natural phenomena, and human activities that contribute to hazard risk. To receive credit, a flood hazard monitoring system must be:

• Systematic: Include a mechanism for systematic and ongoing observation (e.g., satellite data, weather monitoring, sensors, etc.)
• Publicly available: Include a mechanism to publicize hazard forecasts free of charge
• Actionable: Be connected to an early warning system that can issue warnings/alerts about imminent danger from the hazard (e.g., Alert Ready, push notifications, media, sirens, etc.)

Legislation/Regulations

To receive credit, legislation/regulations must:

• Establish what high risk is for the hazard; and
• Include restrictions for unmitigated development/establish appropriate mitigation criteria in high risk areas
  

To receive credit for monitoring and enforcing its land use legislation/regulations, the province/territory must demonstrate:

• How it tracks compliance with its legislation/regulations; and
• Its system for handling non-compliance

Wildfire risk

Activity

The province/territory maps, monitors, and regulates its wildfire risk.

Criteria

Hazard Mapping

• To receive credit, wildfire hazard maps must meet both the quality and coverage criteria

Quality

• Current: Have been updated within the past ten years
• Publicly accessible: Available free of charge in a digital format through an online platform
• Authoritative: Be of regulatory quality for the jurisdiction and identify areas of high risk

Coverage

• Wildfire hazard maps cover at least 75% of the potential risk area

Hazard Monitoring

Hazard monitoring means the systematic and ongoing observation of environmental conditions, natural phenomena, and human activities that contribute to hazard risk. To receive credit, a wildfire hazard monitoring system must be:

• Systematic: Include a mechanism for systematic and ongoing observation (e.g., satellite data, weather monitoring, sensors, etc.)
• Publicly available: Include a mechanism to publicize hazard forecasts free of charge
• Actionable: Be connected to an early warning system that can issue warnings/alerts about imminent danger from the hazard (e.g., Alert Ready, push notifications, media warnings, sirens, etc.)

Legislation/Regulations

To receive credit, legislation/regulations must:

• Establish what high risk is for the hazard; and
• Include restrictions for unmitigated development/establish appropriate mitigation criteria in high risk areas

To receive credit for monitoring and enforcing its land use legislation/regulations, the province/territory must demonstrate:

• How it tracks compliance with its legislation/regulations; and
• Its system for handling non-compliance

One additional natural hazard

Activity

The province/territory may add one additional natural hazard (e.g., earthquake, hurricane, landslide, snowstorms, etc.) that is a high risk in its jurisdiction based on its risk assessment to this list and receive credit for mapping, monitoring, and legislation/regulations in place for that hazard.

Criteria

Hazard Mapping

• To receive credit, hazard maps must meet both the quality and coverage criteria. PTs must also demonstrate that the selected natural hazard poses a high risk to its jurisdiction on the basis of its risk assessment

Quality

• Current: Have been updated within the past ten years
• Publicly accessible: Available free of charge in a digital format through an online platform
• Authoritative: Be of regulatory quality for the jurisdiction and identify areas of high risk

Coverage

• Hazard maps cover the majority at least 50% of the potential risk area or at least 80% of the at-risk population

Hazard Monitoring

Hazard monitoring means the systematic and ongoing observation of environmental conditions, natural phenomena, and human activities that contribute to hazard risk. To receive credit, the hazard-specific monitoring system must be:

• Systematic: Include a mechanism for systematic and ongoing observation (e.g., satellite data, weather monitoring, sensors, etc.)
• Publicly available: Include a mechanism to publicize hazard forecasts free of charge
• Actionable: Be connected to an early warning system that can issue warnings/alerts about imminent danger from the hazard (e.g., Alert Ready, push notifications, media warnings, sirens, etc.)

Legislation/Regulations

To receive credit, legislation/regulations must:

• Establish what high risk is for the hazard; and
• Include restrictions for unmitigated development/establish appropriate mitigation criteria in high risk areas.
  

To receive credit for monitoring and enforcing its land use legislation/regulations, the province/territory must demonstrate:

• How it tracks compliance with its legislation/regulations; and
• Its system for handling non-compliance

Natural hazard: [Indicate which natural hazard]

Public alerting

Activity

The province/territory provides training for, has processes in place for, regularly tests, and uses a public alerting system to provide timely hazard warnings in its jurisdiction.

Criteria

A public alerting system means a comprehensive network of communication tools designed to rapidly alert and inform the public about imminent threats or emergencies. The National Public Alerting System (Alert Ready) is an example of a public alerting system and can be used to meet this requirement if the province/territory has processes in place to use it.

To receive credit for processes in place to use the public alerting system, the province/territory must demonstrate that:

• Its processes are current, meaning the written process documentation has been reviewed/updated in the past two years and is actively in use (e.g., not superseded)
• It has and follows a testing schedule with at least two system tests per year

Risk Communication and Disclosure

Activity

The province/territory provides public information about its highest natural hazard risks and requires the disclosure of natural hazard risks on real estate and development listings and transactions.

Criteria

A disaster risk communication strategy is:

• A written document that identifies key messages for different audiences for the highest natural hazard risks (at least two) in the province/territory
• The document includes multiple (at least three) mechanisms for reaching audiences with key messages
• At a minimum, risk communication materials include guidance for homeowner, renters, and businesses, with specific actions on how to reduce their disaster risk to the relevant natural hazards

Implementing a disaster risk communication strategy means the risk communication materials have been shared/published via the mechanisms identified in the strategy within the past year.

The disclosure of natural hazard risk refers to a seller/landlord making a potential buyer/tenant aware of natural hazards that pose a high risk to the property. This includes disclosing both previous damage from a natural hazard and any relevant high-risk designations for the property (e.g., a high-risk flood area, a wildland-urban interface fire area, a tsunami zone, etc.).

Calculate the total number of credits for this section.

Section 2: Mitigation Planning

Strategic Mitigation Plan

Activity

The province/territory has a jurisdiction-wide disaster mitigation plan that is current, publicly accessible, and includes a prioritized list of mitigation projects based on a risk assessment.

Criteria

To receive credit, a disaster mitigation plan must be:

• Jurisdiction-wide: The scope of the plan covers the entirety of the province/territory
• Risk-based and prioritized: Mitigation projects are based on a risk assessment and prioritized based on criteria that at least includes level of risk
• Current: The plan is currently in use (e.g., not archived or superseded) and has been issued and/or updated in the past four years
• Publicly accessible: Is available online in a digital format, free of charge, and can be located using a reasonable search

Sharing Mitigation Lessons

Activity

The province/territory actively shares lessons, guidance materials and templates, and case studies of successful mitigation projects with external partners in the wider community of practice (e.g., local authorities, other provinces/territories, the federal government, the public, etc.).

Criteria

Sharing means providing/publishing written materials (e.g., lessons learned, case studies, guidance documents, templates, etc.) to the public or wider community of practice beyond the government. To receive credit for sharing materials, at least two written materials for mitigation have been shared/published in the past year (that were created by the province/territory, not redistributing content created by others).

Actively participating means contributing to the forum with external partners by sharing the experiences and written materials created by the province/territory with the other members of the forum. A forum can include a working group, a multi-jurisdictional initiative, a community of practice, etc. that is primarily dedicated to advancing disaster mitigation. Disaster mitigation must be one of the key themes/purposes of the forum.

Supporting Local Authorities

Activity

The province/territory supports local authorities in the development of local disaster mitigation plans for their jurisdictions.

Criteria

Training refers to courses, workshops, or other types of learning sessions. Training can be direct delivery (the province/territory trains local authorities), contracted out (the province/territory pays a service provider to train local authorities), or funding for training (the Province/Territory provides funding to local authorities to secure their own training). To qualify as training, the delivery must include some type of interaction and learning experience, and not just a document or how-to guide.

Dedicated funding refers to multi-year funding that is specific to the development of local disaster mitigation plans and not generic funding that can but does not have to be used for mitigation plan development. Dedicated funding can include provinces/territories fund-matching or contributing to other sources of funding for local authorities (such as funding available through the Federation of Canadian Municipalities); however, other sources of funding cannot be the sole source of funding available to local authorities.

Local Authority Disaster Mitigation Plans

Activity

Local authorities in the province/territory each have a disaster mitigation plan that is current, publicly-available, and includes a prioritized list of mitigation projects based on a risk assessment.

Criteria

To receive credit, local authority disaster mitigation plans must be:

• Risk-based and prioritized: Mitigation projects are based on a risk assessment and prioritized based on criteria that at least includes level of risk
• Current: The plan is currently in use (e.g., not archived or superseded) and has been issued and/or updated in the past four years
• Publicly accessible: Is available online in a digital format, free of charge, and can be located using a reasonable search

Leveraging Disaster Resilience Enhancements and Strategic Mitigation Funding in the DFAA

Activity

The province/territory leverages available disaster resilience enhancement and strategic mitigation funding within the DFAA Program for its eligible disasters.

Criteria

For spending on disaster resilience enhancements and/or strategic mitigation, the province/territory may use its most recent eligible disaster or the average of the past three eligible disasters.

Disaster resilience enhancements spending can refer to either total maximum amount (i.e., of the available disaster resilience enhancement funding, the province/territory spent at least 20 or 50%) or to the number of projects (i.e., for at least 20 or 50% of its claims/projects in Streams 2 and 3, the province/territory included disaster resilience enhancement funding).

Strategic mitigation spending refers to the amount of the Stream 5 funding envelope of the province/territory (either 50 or 80% of the available funding envelope).

Calculate the total number of credits for this section.

Section 3: Pre-Disaster Recovery Planning

Pre-Disaster Recovery Plan

Activity

The province/territory has a pre-disaster recovery plan that is current and publicly accessible.

Criteria

A pre-disaster recovery plan is one that has been developed in advance, in which the jurisdiction documents (at a minimum): how it intends to approach disaster recovery, who will be involved (organizational structure), with whom it will communicate and how, and the financial resources available for recovery and how to access them.

For a plan to be considered current, it must be in current use (e.g., not archived or superseded) and have been issued and/or updated in the past four years.

For a plan to be considered publicly accessible, it must be available online in a digital format, free of charge, and can be located using a reasonable search.

Disaster Recovery Indicators

Activity

The province/territory has a list of disaster recovery indicators and actively tracks and publicly reports on its disaster recovery indicators.

Criteria

Disaster recovery indicators refer to metrics used to measure and evaluate the effectiveness of disaster recovery efforts. To be considered recovery indicators, the identified indicators must be publicly available and include an update cycle that covers the duration of disaster recovery.

Recovery indicators should reflect physical, social, economic, and environmental recovery factors to capture a holistic picture of recovery.

Sharing Recovery Lessons

Activity

The province/territory actively shares lessons, guidance materials and templates, and case studies of disaster recovery with external partners in the wider community of practice (e.g., local authorities, other provinces/territories, the federal government, the public, etc.).

Criteria

Sharing means providing/publishing written materials (e.g., lessons learned, case studies, guidance documents, templates, etc.) to the public or wider community of practice beyond the government. To receive credit for sharing materials, at least two written materials for disaster recovery have been shared/published in the past year (that were created by the province/territory, not redistributing content created by others).

Actively participating means contributing to the forum with external partners by sharing the experiences of and written materials created by the province/territory with the other members of the forum. A forum can include a working group, a multi-jurisdictional initiative, a community of practice, etc. that is primarily dedicated to advancing disaster mitigation. Disaster recovery must be one of the key themes/purposes of the forum.

Supporting Local Authorities

Activity

The province/territory supports local authorities in the development of pre-disaster recovery plans for their jurisdictions.

Criteria

Training refers to courses, workshops, or other types of learning sessions. Training can be direct delivery (the province/territory trains local authorities), contracted out (the province/territory pays a service provider to train local authorities), or funding for training (the province/territory provides funding to local authorities to secure their own training). To qualify as training, the delivery must include some type of interaction and learning experience, and not just a document or how-to guide.

Dedicated funding refers to multi-year funding that is specific to the development of local pre-disaster recovery plans and not generic funding that can but does not have to be used for planning. Dedicated funding can include provinces/territories fund-matching, contributing to, or topping up funding from another source (such as funding available through the Federation of Canadian Municipalities), however, other sources of funding cannot be the sole source of funding available to local authorities.

Local Authority Disaster Recovery Plans

Activity

Local authorities in the province/territory each have a pre-disaster recovery plan that is current and publicly available.

Criteria

A local authority pre-disaster recovery plan is one that has been developed in advance, in which the jurisdiction documents (at a minimum): how it intends to approach disaster recovery, who will be involved (organizational structure), with whom it will communicate and how, and the financial resources available for recovery and how to access them. The pre-disaster recovery plan must be connected to both the local authority's emergency management plan/program and its official urban plan.

For a plan to be considered current, it must be in current use (e.g., not archived or superseded) and have been issued and/or updated in the past four years.

For a plan to be considered publicly available, it must be available online in a digital format, free of charge, and can be located using a reasonable search.

Calculate the total number of credits for this section.

Date modified:

2025-06-18