Home Programs Emergency management Recovery DFAA Manual to assist in the interpretation of federal guidelines EPC 22/88 Interpretation - Public Sector

Interpretation - Public Sector

1. Most costs related to the restoration of public works, other than normal ongoing or operating costs, are eligible for assistance under the Disaster Financial Assistance arrangements. This includes all pre-emptive action such as evacuation, building of temporary dykes, relocation of material or resources, sandbagging, incremental costs associated with use of National Defence troops or vehicles, and rental of equipment. that is not included is the purchase of special or additional equipment to fight the disaster, salaries (other than overtime) of permanent employees, or any expenditures related to preventive measures. The arrangements do not compensate for equipment purchased or measures taken that would or should be a normal part of preparations to avoid or mitigate the effects of a future disaster.
2. Salaries of permanent employees are not eligible. However, where permanent employees of provincial government departments or agencies are engaged in disaster related work during the disaster or in the immediate post disaster period, their overtime costs (including payment, where applicable, for statutory holidays) and actual and reasonable expenses are eligible.
3. In the immediate post-disaster period, only those costs of appraising and estimating damage which are additional to the work carried out by regular government employees are eligible for sharing. This would include the hiring of outside appraisers or estimators or, in the case of provinces where public insurance exists and is operated by an arm's length public corporation, the use of employees of that corporation to make appraisals or estimates. The cost of backfilling positions to temporarily cover full-time staff conducting disaster assistance surveys and assessments is eligible provided documentation is available specifying positions being backfilled, persons employed and actual time spent. It is essential that accurate time sheets for labour and equipment be kept by the province to permit calculation of incremental costs of government services.
4. All damage to public works such as roads, bridges, dykes, dams, breakwaters, etc., is eligible for federal assistance but only in an amount which would restore the public work in question to its pre-disaster condition. This amount will be determined by federal and provincial officials expert in the construction, repair and maintenance of the type of facility concerned. The latest estimate on record or the tendered costs or actual costs will be accepted provided that the estimate/tender contains an accurate description of the work to be done to restore such public works. The federal qovernment will not share in the cost of upgradinq public works to higher standards than those which existed before the disaster. If a province or municipality wishes to upgrade the facility, only that portion of the work which would have brought the structure to its pre-disaster condition is eligible for federal assistance.
5. It should be noted that in repairing damage to public works, provincial or municipal materiel resources used in applications beyond those for which they were intended are eligible for assistance. If such work is contracted out, it too, is eligible for sharing. Eligible costs related to publicly owned resources are limited to reasonable direct costs (e.g. wages, fuel, oil, lubricants). Indirect costs such as depreciation and overhead are not eligible for sharing.
6. Intra-governmental costs such as those charged when the equipment of one government department is used or "rented" by another, are not eligible for sharing. Internal handling or administration costs for moving goods in and out of provincial government warehouses, and interdepartmental and intergovernmental service fees and overhead are not eligible for sharing.
7. Interest on bank loans obtained by municipalities as bridge financing until provincial and federal monies are provided is generally not considered eligible.
8. Expenditures by Crown corporations, whether federal or provincial, are not eligible unless, as provided in Chapter III, paragraph 8(6), they are corporations supplying sewer and water services.
9. Chapter III, paragraph 8(5) provides for financial assistance in the case of damage to public recreational facilities.
10. Damage to church property or private recreational facilities such as those owned by summer camps or service clubs does not qualify for assistance. An exception may be considered in the case of church property where such property constitutes a facility essential to the secular needs of the community, or where service clubs and charitable organizations operate a facility in the community's interest and to which there is unrestricted public access.
11. Requests have been received for assistance to meet the costs of fighting forest fires. These have not been accepted. The purpose of the arrangements is to assist individuals and governments to restore essential private and public property to its pre-disaster condition. Damage to forests is not, therefore, considered eligible.
12. Requests have also been received for linking separate disasters in a given year. The arrangements apply only to one specific event. Linking of several disastrous events is not allowed. The only exception to this has been during general spring flooding where water levels in a defined area of a province are high for long periods. Storms that have caused secondary flooding after the main flood has subsided have generally been linked to the spring flooding condition for purposes of financial assistance. It is normal practice to set dates in defining the disaster period and to base assistance on damage incurred between those dates.
13. Multiple disasters where, if each were considered separately, no single one would reach the threshold but which might reasonably be considered as part of the same event or as a sequence of closely related events, may be considered as constituting a single disaster for purposes of disaster financial assistance. When this possibility exists with disasters related to unusual weather conditions, the Atmospheric Environment Service of Environment Canada will be asked to determine whether the events in question resulted from a single or inter-related series of meteorological events and thus might be considered as a single disaster. Also, it is recognized that there may be circumstances in which multiple disasters in a single fiscal year warrant special consideration. Such rare occurrences will be treated individually as they arise.
14. As noted previously, eligible costs to a province or municipality are the net costs. Contributions from agencies such as the Canadian Disaster Relief Fund or
    which result from a disaster related fund raising drive will be subtracted from a province's total costs before eligible costs are determined.
15. Estimated costs are used when a public work is to be repaired to better than pre-disaster condition. In such cases, the estimated amount required to repair to pre-disaster condition will be the eligible provincial expenditures for that particular project.
16. Numerous instances have occurred where unsupported invoices, i.e. invoices for goods or services in which the reason for purchasing the goods or services is not given and their applicability to recovery operations is not obvious, have been included in provincial expenditures. Generally, these are not acceptable.
17. Indian reserves are the responsibility of Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC). However, it has been general practice for provinces to treat Indians on reserves in the same manner as they treat other residents. Costs incurred on Indian reserves in recovering from a disaster should be included in the provincial list of expenditures and 100 per cent of these costs will be reimbursed. This includes the cost of equipment and human resources supplied by the province to reserves in responding to the disaster.
18. Federal public works carried out on Indian reserves are the responsibility of Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC) and are not to be included in the provincial expenditures. INAC may negotiate repair of roads, bridges, schools, sewage and water systems with provincial authorities, private contractors or federal public works. In this instance, requests for payment would be the responsibility of INAC.
19. Damage to provincial public works such as roads and bridges on reserve property would be included as shareable items for assistance in accordance with the Disaster Financial Assistance arrangements formula.
20. Landscape damage has not normally been considered eligible for assistance. Exceptions have included damage to a public recreation facility and a university botanical garden. Landscaping around other public buildings is ineligible for assistance.
21. Debris in channels of rivers and streams, in the context of the DFAA, is the material deposited by abnormal flooding. The cost of removing it may be shared if the consequences of not doing so would be against the public interest. This does not include "scalping" of gravel beds unless there has been an unusually heavy, disaster related, deposition. Then, only the cost of removing the disaster related deposition, as closely as this can be estimated, is eligible for sharing.
22. Questions have arisen regarding insurance policies of provincial governments. Some provincial governments follow a policy of self-insurance while others purchase insurance from the private sector. Compensation under the Disaster Financial Assistance arrangements should not influence a decision by a province as to which method of insurance coverage is most suitable to them. To treat all provinces equally, it has been agreed that a province could self-insure and be paid the full amount of damage to public property eligible under the guidelines even though private insurance could have been purchased. If private insurance has been purchased, the deductible amounts for public sector damage are eligible for cost-sharing