Feds send $148M to B.C. in disaster recovery funds for floods, wildfires

A helicopter equipped to respond to wildfires flies past homes in the Wilden neighbourhood near Knox Mountain after RCMP officers enforced a new evacuation order, in Kelowna, B.C., on Friday, Aug. 18, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

The federal government is paying out more than $148 million in disaster recovery funding to British Columbia in response to recent flooding and record-breaking wildfire seasons.

Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Canada says in a statement that the funding will be paid through its Disaster Financial Assistance Arrangements program for supporting costs linked with the 2022 and 2023 wildfires season as well as flooding last year.

The federal government says B.C. saw more than 4,000 wildfires in the two years, with 223 evacuations orders and 431 alerts affecting about 192,000 residents overall.

It says about $132 million will be sent for the 2023 wildfire season and $12 million for 2022, as well as about $4 million for the flooding in the B.C. Interior that happened in April and May 2023.

The 2023 B.C. wildfire season is the most destructive in the province's history, with more than 28,400 square kilometres of land burned along with many structures, including entire neighbourhoods in the Okanagan.

The 2023 wildfire season in B.C. contributed to the most destructive wildfire season in the country with 6,000 fires torching 150,000 square kilometres — an area more than double the original record set in 1989, according to Natural Resources Canada.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 9, 2024.