B.C. supports projects that help communities prepare for climate emergencies

Press Release

May 9, 2025

PITT MEADOWS – To better protect people and communities throughout B.C. from the increasing threat of natural and climate-related emergencies, the Province is providing more than $40 million for 61 projects.

The Province is supporting First Nations and local governments with projects that address natural and climate-driven hazards, such as floods, drought, extreme temperatures, earthquakes and landslides. Approximately $21 million is being provided from the new Disaster Resilience and Innovation Funding (DRIF) program in addition to almost $20 million from the Community Emergency Preparedness Fund (CEPF).

“The frequency of climate-caused events is increasing, and managing and reducing these risks is essential,” said Kelly Greene, Minister of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness. “By supporting communities on these projects, we are helping to better protect these communities and the people who call them home. Our new DRIF program provides reliable, long-term funding so communities can better plan for and address their most pressing disaster-mitigation needs.”

The City of Pitt Meadows is receiving more than $3.6 million from the DRIF program to upgrade components of the Kennedy Drainage Pump Station to counter threats, such as flood and sea-level rise, drought and water scarcity. The project, in consultation with the q̓ic̓əy̓ (Katzie) First Nation, includes installing higher-capacity pumps and new debris screens. These upgrades will also ensure that fish can travel from the Katzie Slough into the Pitt River during high-water periods.

“Thank you to the Province for this meaningful investment and partnership in advancing climate-action initiatives, including flood-mitigation efforts,” said Nicole MacDonald, mayor of Pitt Meadows. “This funding will make a real difference for the long-term resilience of our city. Not only will we be able to replace aging infrastructure with higher-capacity, modern pumps, but we will be incorporating fish-friendly features that reflect our community’s environmental values.”

Other key projects include:

• A remediation project for the Bouffioux Coulee in Fort St. John will improve the coulee’s berm to protect homes, the sewer outfall pipeline and the River Drive embankment along the Peace River.
• Seismic planning for the City of Burnaby will improve infrastructure to limit potential damage during earthquakes.
• Creating an urban forest for the Nazko First Nation will provide relief during extreme-heat events. The project will also improve flood resilience by increasing soil stability as the trees’ roots mature.

“Nazko First Nation is extremely pleased to have the opportunity to establish an urban forest,” said Nazko First Nation Chief Leah Stump. “This project will not only mitigate the impacts of climate change and extreme heat, but will also provide additional benefits such as biodiversity, flood mitigation, soil conservation and beautification.”

Since 2017, government funding programs have provided more than $540 million for approximately 2,660 disaster-preparedness and mitigation projects.

Quotes:

Lisa Beare, MLA, Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows –

“Homes, farmland and infrastructure in our community will be better protected through these critical upgrades to the Kennedy Pump Station. Through this partnership, the Pitt Meadows community will be better equipped to prepare and respond to emergencies. By investing and collaborating today, we’re helping to ensure a more resilient and secure future for everyone.”

Jim Lequiere, acting mayor, Fort St. John –

“This funding from the Community Emergency Preparedness Fund is helping Fort St. John take critical steps to reduce flood risk and protect our community. Upgrades to the Bouffioux Coulee berm, a new sewer outfall pipeline and River Drive embankment improvements will reduce flood risks, safeguard critical infrastructure and strengthen our readiness for extreme-weather events.”

Trish Mandewo, president, Union of B.C. Municipalities –

“Local governments are on the front lines of responding to climate-related emergencies and the need for proactive, community-driven solutions has never been greater. UBCM is proud to partner with the Province in delivering CEPF funding, which equips communities across B.C. with the tools and resources they need to adapt to a changing climate and reduce disaster risks before they happen.”

Learn More:

For more information about the DRIF program and how to apply, visit: https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content? id=76C1AA90A3844FDE9740B2E8B9355842

For information about the Community Emergency Preparedness Fund, visit: https://www.ubcm.ca/cepf

For information about disaster and climate-risk reduction and available supports, visit: https://www.ClimateReadyBC.ca

Three backgrounders follow.

Contact:

Ministry of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness
Media Relations
250 880-6430

BACKGROUNDER 1

Project facts

• Expressions of interest from First Nations and local governments for the next round of the DRIF program are being accepted until June 27, 2025.
• Approximately $25 million is available in 2025-26.
• Since 2017, approximately $334 million has been provided through CEPF for more than 2,430 projects across several funding categories.
• The CEPF is administered by the Union of B.C. Municipalities on behalf of the Province.
• The DRIF and CEPF programs complement other provincial disaster preparedness and mitigation programs, including:
  • the Community Resiliency Investment program, including FireSmart initiatives, providing stable, ongoing funding to reduce wildfire risks; and
  • the $100-million Agricultural Water Infrastructure program, which supports new or improved water storage and supply systems for irrigation and livestock in water-scarce and drought-prone areas.

Contact:

Ministry of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness
Media Relations
250 880-6430

BACKGROUNDER 2

Disaster Resilience and Innovation Funding program recipients

The new Disaster Resilience and Innovation Funding (DRIF) program provides support to First Nations and local governments for projects that will enhance their ability to withstand and adapt to natural hazards and climate-caused disasters.

Funding is available in two categories:

• Structural projects
• Foundational and non-structural projects

Local governments and First Nations throughout British Columbia are receiving approximately $21 million for 46 projects as follows:

Structural projects

City of Pitt Meadows: Kennedy Drainage Pump Station upgrades
This project will increase the resilience of the City of Pitt Meadows and help protect people, businesses, farmers and critical transportation networks from flooding.
Amount: $3.65 million

City of Merritt: Installation of the next phase of the City of Merritt flood-protection dikes
Planning to begin construction of another section of dike to help protect the city from flooding. This dike section protects the Middlesboro area and the downtown core.
Amount: $3,398,150

Nazko First Nation: Natural infrastructure disaster risk-reduction project
An urban forest will be created to offer relief during extreme heat and provide flood mitigation through increased soil stability.
Amount: $1,102,560

Regional District of Central Okanagan: Community hall HVAC installations
This project strengthens critical community infrastructure against extreme temperatures and associated power outages, particularly supporting vulnerable populations during emergencies.
Amount: $200,000

Foundational and non-structural projects

Aitchelitz First Nation: Cost benefit analysis for flood-risk and mitigation strategies
Enhance the understanding of flood-risk and flood-mitigation strategies in the community, and support future projects to reduce flood risk.
Amount: $147,845

City of Burnaby: Burnaby Strategies and Actions for Earthquake Resilience (B-SAFER)
B-SAFER focuses on developing seismic resiliency strategies, including recommendations for infrastructure improvements, upgrades and revision of bylaws and guidelines.
Amount: $400,000

City of Castlegar: Floodplain mapping and climate change hazard risk assessment
This project will provide a better understanding of areas within the city that are at a higher risk of flooding. This will allow the city to co-ordinate and communicate with residents in times of higher flood risk.
Amount: $399,920

City of Chilliwack: Chilliwack Creek catchment flood-mitigation project
The project will improve the city’s resilience to natural and climate-driven disasters through improved understanding of flood risks, vulnerabilities and available risk-reduction options.
Amount: $110,000

City of Courtenay: Anderton Dike remediation assessment, design and engagement
The planning phase of the dike remediation project will determine how to best apply engineering and biology to naturalize the shore to mitigate the risk associated with erosion and flooding.
Amount: $400,000

City of Delta: Climate-adaptation and resilience strategy
Delta will improve its understanding of risks, vulnerabilities and impacts to climate-related hazards through a review of climate-change projections and impacts, and a review of the city’s hazard, risk and vulnerability analysis (HRVA).
Amount: $75,000

City of Kamloops: Thompson River watershed climate-adaptation plan
Drought risk in Kamloops is increasing annually, with a trend of water-level decline found in recent floodplain mapping. To complete planning for critical infrastructure, the study will include hydrologic and hydraulic analysis of the Thompson River watershed.
Amount: $400,000

City of Merritt: Hazard risk and vulnerability analysis (HRVA)
An updated, modernized HRVA is essential to identify hazards of biggest concern and to allow communities to reduce risks through identifying future risk-reduction projects.
Amount: $60,000

City of Merritt: Sandbagging machine
A sandbagging machine improves flooding resiliency by allowing the rapid sealing of manholes and catch basins. It reduces the labour required to produce sandbags in an emergency, freeing up personnel to conduct other response actions.
Amount: $100,000

City of Nanaimo: Sea-level rise management plan
This project helps the city plan for and manage potential sea-level rise before severe impacts occur, and ensure new infrastructure is designed and located to be resilient to sea-level rise and coastal flooding impacts.
Amount: $400,000

City of Richmond: North Dike preliminary design project
This project improves the city’s resilience to flood, addressing both current and future risks associated with sea-level rise and climate change.
Amount: $400,000

Cowichan Valley Regional District: Tsunami modelling and mapping – Regional partners: Municipality of North Cowichan, Town of Ladysmith
Resiliency will be increased by improving the understanding of disaster risk from tsunami caused by earthquake and underwater landslide/sand slide.
Amount: $400,000

District of North Vancouver: Disaster risk-reduction action plan for the North Shore – Regional partners: City of North Vancouver, District of West Vancouver
This project is a collaboration between the three North Shore municipalities, the Tsleil-Waututh Nation, Squamish Nation and critical infrastructure partners. The action plan will reduce risk and empower residents, organizations and communities to share the responsibility to reduce disaster risk and adapt to climate change.
Amount: $997,000

Dzawada’enuxw First Nation: Disaster risk assessment, and resilience and innovation planning-mitigation options assessment
The disaster risk assessment will identify potential solutions to mitigate hazards and identify adaptation and risk-reduction options. The resilience and innovation assessment will increase the remote Nation’s resilience through a mitigation and planning analysis.
Amount: $400,000

Fraser Valley Regional District: Landslide hazard assessment at Boston Bar, and risk-management framework for catastrophic landslides
This project includes a technical evaluation of the landslide hazard above the community, and an examination of existing risk-management policies. It will build resiliency through co-ordination and engagement with First Nations, infrastructure owners and the regional district.
Amount: $345,434

Lytton First Nation: Enhancing climate resilience through infrastructure planning
This project is part of a five-year strategy to improve the Nation’s ability to plan, prioritize and implement infrastructure projects and programs to improve resilience in the face of growing impacts caused by climate change.
Amount: $325,000

Metro Vancouver (Regional District): Rice Lake dams – Seismic hazard and stability assessments
The Rice Lake dams are classified as “very high consequence” under the BC Dam Safety Regulation, indicating the importance of understanding potential risks.
Amount: $300,000

District of Peachland: Hazard, risk and vulnerability analysis (HRVA) and climate-change risk assessment (CCRA)
The project will assess hazard probabilities by comparing annual climate hazard occurrences with historical climate trends and thresholds for specific assets or systems.
Amount: $70,000

Regional District of Central Kootenay: Updated floodplain bylaws and associated mapping – Regional partner: Village of Salmo
This project will improve resilience of the small rural communities by providing updated and detailed floodplain and hazard mapping and bylaws related to land adjacent to flood-prone and steep creek areas.
Amount: $194,000

Regional District of Central Okanagan: Comprehensive hazard risk and vulnerability assessment
The project will improve resilience by enhancing co-ordination and engagement, informing mitigation strategies and existing infrastructure upgrades, promoting green infrastructure and guiding the development of new infrastructure.
Amount: $125,000

Regional District of Kootenay Boundary: Floodplain and alluvial fan mapping, Electoral Areas D and E
This region experiences regular and destructive flooding. The two electoral areas were identified in previous risk assessments as requiring updated flood mapping that incorporates climate change forecasting.
Amount: $400,000

Saulteau First Nation: Water-related hazard management plan
The project will improve resilience through increased and more accessible planning/mapping resources. This work aids the Nation in working with external partners toward regional resiliency.
Amount: $245,987

Skowkale First Nation: Disaster risk reduction and climate adaptation plan – Regional partners: Aitchelitz First Nation, Yakweakwioose First Nation
This regional project increases resilience of the First Nations to natural and climate disasters through a deeper understanding of their specific risks and the development of community-centred solutions.
Amount: $486,579

Strathcona Regional District: Walters Island water system study
The regional district will assess the system’s vulnerabilities and develop a more resilient design that reduces the risk of catastrophic water shortages.
Amount: $70,000

Village of Kaslo: Enhancing Kaslo’s resilience to flooding and geohazards
A two-part project that helps ensure a sustainable future for Kaslo’s drinking-water sources, and planning for flood and erosion mitigation on the Kaslo River by identifying hazards and mitigating the effects of extreme weather events.
Amount: $150,000

Town of Princeton: Diking system ownership study and Similkameen dike upgrades pre-design report
The pre-design project identifies dike sections to upgrade, alternatives for flood protection upgrades, and provide the foundational work for a future structural project.
Amount: $400,000

Town of Sidney: Disaster-safe water supply
This project will help the town access alternate sources of potable water when primary infrastructure is damaged during an earthquake or cannot deliver expected volumes or quantities.
Amount: $176,000

Ts’kw’aylaxw First Nation: Pesqatwa7 (Pavilion Lake) landslide hazard mitigation planning
Continual monitoring of existing landslide hazards to better define their extents and magnitude. Community resilience will be increased by the development of preliminary mitigation measures and designs.
Amount: $400,000

Uchucklesaht Tribe Government: Shoreline protection analysis
A shoreline protection analysis will examine nature-based and engineering approaches to shoreline protection that could result in new infrastructure that enhances resilience to coastal storms, flooding and tsunamis.
Amount: $400,000

Village of Cumberland: Perseverance watershed initiative
This project provides hydrometric and soil data to improve understanding of water scarcity, drought and flood issues in the region.
Amount: $75,000

Village of Lumby: Duteau Creek flood-mitigation works preliminary design
Continuation of the village’s flood-mitigation plan that will reduce the risk of flooding and increase resilience. A proposed new dike will provide structural flood mitigation to the project area.
Amount: $400,000

Village of Pemberton: Ayers Dike flood mitigation project
This project will inform decision-making around structural and non-structural flood mitigation to increase resilience in the Pemberton Valley, ensuring flood mitigation strategies are cost-effective, data-driven and sustainable.
Amount: $297,589

Wei Wai Kum First Nation: IR #11 disaster resilience and development planning
The project includes a flood-mitigation-and-erosion-control plan, including floodplain mapping, a seismic assessment and an environmental assessment, including consideration of future structural disaster risk-reduction projects.
Amount: $400,000

Witset First Nation: Comprehensive study for water supply resilience
Detailed hydrologic modelling, flow, water-quality monitoring and infrastructure assessments will generate vital data on risks such as water shortages, reduced water quality and system failures.
Amount: $399,226

Xaxli’p First Nation: IR1 Landslide hazard assessment and preliminary mitigation design
This study will provide the framework for future detailed mitigation design and continued monitoring as part of the next phase of the project, increasing the resiliency of this remote community.
Amount: $400,000

City of Vancouver: Reducing extreme heat risk in multi-family buildings
This project forms the foundation for increasing city resilience through municipal actions, policies or programs to reduce the risk of extreme heat in homes across Vancouver.
Amount: $215,000

Kitselas Band Council: Assessment and design to mitigate sediment inputs from the Clore Slide
The project will develop mitigation options and a detailed design to reduce the potential for landslide activity, which will reduce the risks to people and infrastructure.
Amount: $170,000

Leq’a:mel First Nation: Building resilience and strengthening relationships for disaster risk mitigation – Partnering proponent: Sumas First Nation
The two First Nations will lead a project in developing partnerships with 15 Coast Salish Nations to create a regional resilience plan, promoting disaster risk reduction around drought and water scarcity, extreme temperatures, flood and geohazards.
Amount: $200,000

Regional District of Kitimat-Stikine: Climate action plan
The climate action plan will provide a better understanding of the impacts of climate change and the risks it poses on the region, where vulnerabilities lie and what options are available to reduce these risks.
Amount: $174,558

Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) First Nation: Nature-based solutions assessment
This work will identify potential structural and non-structural mitigation works to support the Nation to adapt to climate change and impacts from sea-level rise and shifting precipitation patterns.
Amount: $233,832

Town of Smithers: Integrated climate change and natural-assets management plan
The plan will help the town understand the risks posed by climate change to natural assets, the value that they provide from an economic and ecological perspective, and the options available to mitigate that risk.
Amount: $199,300

Village of Cache Creek: Sewer protection options analysis and design
An options analysis and detailed plan contribute to a better understanding of risks and vulnerabilities to floods, avalanches and landslides.
Amount: $394,000

Contact:

Ministry of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness
Media Relations
250 880-6430

BACKGROUNDER 3

Disaster Risk Reduction-Climate Adaptation funding recipients

The Community Emergency Preparedness Fund is administered through the Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM), and funds projects that support local governments and First Nations to better prepare for disasters and reduce risks from hazards in a changing climate.

Communities throughout British Columbia will receive approximately $20 million from the Community Emergency Preparedness Fund (CEPF) as follows.

Funding is divided into three categories:

Category 1 (C1): Foundational activities (risk mapping, risk assessments, planning)

Category 2 (C2): Non-structural activities (land use planning, community education, purchase of eligible equipment)

Category 3 (C3): Small-scale structural activities

Fort St. John – C1: Bouffioux Coulee watershed flood risk reduction report and design; C2: Rainfall distribution analysis and bylaw amendment for better stormwater planning; C3: Bouffioux Coulee outfall pipeline protection for local and neighbouring communities
Amount: $4.2 million

Gingolx Village Government – C1: Breakwater planning and design to address sea level rise and storm surges
Amount: $150,000

Musqueam – C1: Risk assessment for developing plans and strategies to mitigate climate risk
Amount: $150,000

Peters First Nation – C3: Peters Island phase 3 bank protection and erosion mitigation
Amount: $5 million

Port Coquitlam – C3: Upgrade of Maple Creek drainage pump station
Amount: $5 million

Princeton – C1: Pre-design report for rebuilding or relocating Fenchurch sanitary lift station after 2021 atmospheric river
Amount: $150,000

Quesnel – C1: Hazard risk vulnerability and resilience assessment
Amount: $100,000

Smithers – C1: Regional airport south slope risk assessment and mitigation planning
Amount: $56,000

Surrey – C3: Upgrade 64 Avenue pump station and Upper Serpentine drainage resiliency improvements
Amount: $4 million

Tla’amin Nation (Sliammon) – C1: Coastal flood protection and seawall extension planning
Amount: $150,000

Upper Similkameen Indian Band – C1: Phase 1 Allenby Lake landslide assessment
Amount: $51,152

Victoria – C3: Improvements to Centennial Square to prepare for extreme heat and rain
Amount: $713,510

shíshálh Nation (Sechelt) – C1: Coastal erosion hazard mitigation study
Amount: $150,000

Contact:

Ministry of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness
Media Relations
250 880-6430

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