Question Period Note: Federally Identified Flood Risk Areas and the Flood Risk Awareness Digital Resource

• Flooding is Canada’s costliest natural disaster, and flood damages continue to increase as a result of climate change, demographic shifts, and further development in high-risk flood areas. Canadians, and in particular those in high-risk areas, are increasingly feeling the burden of disaster impacts and flood-related financial pressures, and Indigenous and vulnerable populations are disproportionately affected.
• Aligned with the Emergency Management Strategy for Canada and the United Nations Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR), and the National Adaptation Strategy, the Government of Canada is committed to advance the systems-based approach required for enhancing disaster resilience.

• Flooding is Canada’s costliest natural disaster, and flood damages continue to increase as a result of climate change, demographic shifts, and development in high-risk areas.

• Public Safety Canada is advancing several initiatives to increase flood resilience across Canada to strengthen our ability to prevent, reduce, recover and adapt to flood risks.

• Together, the Federally Identified Flood Risk Areas and the Flood Risk Awareness Digital Resource will launch in Fall 2025 to identify flood risk ratings for all of Canada, inform federal infrastructure investment decisions, and increase Canadians’ awareness of their flood risks.

• These initiatives reflect the government's commitment to emphasize proactive risk reduction and build back better in order to increase the resilience of Canadian society to future disasters.

Federally Identified Flood Risk Areas
• Public Safety Canada (PS) has the mandate to keep Canadians safe from a range of risks, including natural hazards such as flooding. PS’s work requires a consistent and comprehensive understanding of flood hazard and flood risk for all of Canada. To meet PS’s mandate, the department has been evaluating and applying Canada-wide flood hazard models since 2020.
• The Federally-Identified Flood Risk Areas (FIFRA) Initiative was developed to help address gaps in Canada-wide flood information. The goal of the FIFRA datasets is to provide nationally-consistent flood hazard information to supplement and complement other sources of flood hazard data, screen areas for further study and site specific analysis (i.e. as a screening tool), and help guide and target risk reduction efforts across Canada.
Flood Risk Awareness Digital Resource
• Budget 2023 provided $11.5 million over three years, starting in 2023-24, to PS to create a publicly accessible online flood risk awareness digital resource.
• The Digital Resource complements the Flood Hazard Identification and Mapping Program led by Natural Resources Canada.

If Pressed
Q1- Federally Identified Flood Risk Areas
• Informed by a procured Canada-wide Flood Hazard Model, the Federally Identified Flood Risk Areas will identify a flood hazard rating ranging from Low to Extreme that can be used to ensure we are collectively taking action to build new infrastructure with appropriate flood mitigation design.
• In parallel, Public Safety Canada (PS) has initiated and funded a major National Sciences and Engineering Research Council research project with academic partners which is advancing a made-in-Canada flood model that will be open-source.
Q2- Flood Risk Awareness Digital Resource
• The digital resource will provide all Canadians centralized access to information on their risk to flooding and resources on how to protect their homes and communities from flooding.
• Preliminary internal user testing of the prototype has completed. Further iterations and testing will be completed. The digital resource is on track to be launched in Fall 2025.
Q3- Disaster Risk Reduction Data Strategy
• An interdepartmental working group led by PS was convened in 2023 to produce a Disaster Risk Reduction Data Strategy to ensure a common understanding and interoperability for all federal risk data (including exposure and hazard data), and set the foundation for a centralized, consistent source of disaster risk data to support a range of risk assessments.
• The Strategy is at an advanced draft stage and is expected to be published in 2025.
• The Strategy will serve as the foundation for future work that enhances the federal government’s capabilities in the realm of data- and model-driven insights for assessing, and taking actions to reduce disaster risks.