Image: Christian Diotte, House of Commons Photo Services /

By Mike Vanden Bosch

MP Brad Vis

MP Brad Vis says B.C. NDP govt. partly responsible for Abbotsford not getting disaster funding

Jun 26, 2024 | 11:07 AM

ABBOTSFORD — Abbotsford-area MP Brad Vis is pointing the finger at the B.C. NDP government for not approving disaster mitigation funding for the City of Abbotsford.

In a news release dated Monday, June 24, Vis joined fellow MPs Ed Fast (Abbotsford) and Tako van Popta (Langley) in slamming the Trudeau government’s decision not to support the City of Abbotsford’s application for funding connected to the Disaster Mitigation and Adaptation Fund. The support would have allowed the city to pursue critical flood mitigation work, like diking and pumping infrastructure, so as to prevent future disasters like the catastrophic 2021 atmospheric river and flood events.

That flood decimated multiple local farm operations, cut off rail and road transportation, and disrupted vital trade routes and impaired Canada’s largest port in Vancouver. The cost to Canada’s economy was in the many billions of dollars, Vis said. However, the human cost is yet to be quantified.

“Last week, officials from Infrastructure Canada advised us both orally and in writing that the Province of B.C. had made Prince Rupert’s application its top priority for DMAF funding,” Vis said Monday, June 24. “It now appears that the provincial NDP and federal Liberals have abandoned our community despite assuring us that Abbotsford was a high priority for DMAF funding.”

Vis says the federal government routinely solicits advice from the provinces and territories to determine which DMAF funding applications are approved. Federal officials told the local MPs that Abbotsford’s application was deemed deficient for not meeting the government’s “merit-based criteria” and that the application exceeded the scope of the projects that DMAF would consider.

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“The City of Abbotsford worked exclusively with the NDP and Liberal governments on its application,” explained MP Fast.

The federal government has only delivered 40 per cent of the disaster recovery funding that it had promised in its 2021 Fall Economic Statement, the three MPs asserted.

“Our priority now is to ensure that, when the next funding opportunity occurs, all three levels of government work together as one to ensure that the critical flood mitigation work is completed,” said Van Popta. “Time is not on our side, and we hope that it doesn’t take another massive, costly and disruptive flood to spur governments to act. The good people of the Fraser Valley deserve better.”