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The federal government is sending the NWT an “advance payment” of just over $84 million as disaster assistance funding to help recovery from 2023’s wildfires.
Federal emergency preparedness minister Harjit Sajjan said the money would cover “eligible disaster response and recovery expenses” submitted by the NWT government.
More than four million hectares of the NWT burned this summer, a territorial record. At one point, more than two-thirds of the territory’s population was under an evacuation order at the same time.
The hamlet of Enterprise was devastated by a direct hit from a wildfire, several other South Slave communities lost homes and businesses, and the territorial capital, Yellowknife, was placed under a citywide evacuation order for the first time.
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Federal disaster recovery funding is most commonly used to fund the bulk of various programs offered by the GNWT after calamities like wildfires or floods – programs, for example, that step in where insurance wasn’t available and help people to rebuild.
Under Ottawa’s rules, up to 90 percent of eligible claims can be ultimately covered by federal payments.
Characterized as an advance, the funding announced on Wednesday is expected to be the first in a series of payments. The territorial government has already said the initial cost of this year’s fires is well beyond $100 million, with the true overall cost still to be fully understood.
Minister Sajjan said he expects the final cost to be $200 million or more.
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Asked what the advance payment means for the average NWT resident with some form of disaster assistance claim, Sajjan told Cabin Radio: “It means the funding is there to get things done as quickly as possible.”
Pointing to the example of families who lost homes in Enterprise, Sajjan said the payment announced on Wednesday means “they can rebuild their lives as quickly as possible, whether it’s their home or business or whatever else it might be.”
In a news release, the NWT government said it was “grateful to the Government of Canada for accelerating an advance payment.”
The federal government considers eligible expenses to include the likes of “evacuation operations, restoring public works and infrastructure to their pre-disaster condition, as well as restoration or replacement of individuals’ uninsurable principal dwellings, restoration of small businesses and farmsteads, and mitigation measures to reduce the future vulnerability of repaired or replaced infrastructure.”
Ottawa said that list is not exhaustive, and the territory is likely to try to expand the list to include as many wildfire-related issues as possible.
For example, this month’s fuel crisis in the Sahtu has been linked by all parties involved to the inability of an aviation fuel shipment to reach the region in the summer, in part because wildfires shut down facilities in Hay River that send the fuel north by barge.
Asked if federal disaster assistance cash extended to that kind of knock-on impact, Sajjan said: “This is where the federal and territorial governments can work together. I sometimes say, ‘Listen, we’ll take on these expenses here and the territory can take on the others.’ This is about a give and take, here. We’re very flexible on trying to cover as much as we can.”
The NWT government has up to five years to submit its final claim.
Canada also said on Wednesday it is continuing to develop a new version of its disaster assistance program that places more focus on paying governments to put in place climate change mitigation measures.
“This work is being informed by the findings and recommendations of an independent advisory panel and the input of provinces and territories,” the federal government stated. “A modernized program is expected in April 2025.”
