Mr. Speaker, with regard to the government's applications under the disaster mitigation adaptation fund, the DMAF, and the statements made by the Mayor of Merritt, Michael Goetz, and the Mayor of Princeton, Spencer Coyne, in response to part (a) of the question, the DMAF is a national, merit-based, competitive program, and projects are assessed based on the information provided in the project application only. Officials from Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada, or HICC, have met with Merritt to discuss the results of the process. HICC recognizes the importance of all projects it receives but funds are limited, and there were hundreds of projects that needed to be considered in the last round.
With respect to part b), DMAF is a national, merit-based, competitive program, and projects are assessed based on the information provided in the project application only. HICC officials will meet with Princeton to discuss the results of the process towards the end of June. HICC recognizes the importance of all projects it receives but funds are limited and there were hundreds of projects that needed to be considered in the last round.
With respect to part c), DMAF has been consistently oversubscribed since its inception in 2018, and, during the latest intake, the program received applications requesting more than six times the $900 million of funding available. The department received hundreds of well-prepared applications for important projects to improve the resilience of communities from coast to coast to coast. Due to the high level of interest, the department was unable to provide funding to all projects.