Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The federal government expects the cost of disaster relief funding to balloon to a billion dollars or more each year as the climate crisis advances, according to a new risk-management report. 

The document, examining steps by the federal public service to manage the financial risks and possible rewards tied to climate change, was released by Minister of Finance Dominic LeBlanc on Monday. 

Over the past decade, the federal government spent an average $793 million annually to help provinces and farms, businesses, industries and communities overcome natural disasters, according to the inaugural Federal Climate-Related Risk Management report. 

However, as extreme weather and catastrophes aggravated by climate change — like the 2021 flooding in B.C. or Hurricane Fiona in Atlantic Canada the following year — occur more frequently, funding transfers to provinces through the Disaster Financial Assistance Arrangement (DFAA) are expected to spike, the report noted.