The province of Quebec says future victims of flooding or other disasters will get more financial help faster while making the process easier to navigate.
Quebec’s Minister of Public Security, Martin Coiteux, said he revised the province’s compensation program and improved it based on their experience with last year’s floods.
“I want to make sure that people will receive their money very quickly,” Coiteux said.
Coiteux says they’ve streamlined the process by eliminating administrative steps, and improving information on their website.
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The province says it will also increase communication with municipalities by adding extra staff on site and having municipalities taking on more responsibilities
“We never had a situation in which we had 6,000 demands coming from hundreds of municipalities coming from different regions of Quebec so this was something completely new,” Coiteux said at a press conference.
“We learned that the current program was not adapted to a dramatic situation like this one.”
The province says it has already given $150 million in compensation to victims of last spring’s floods.
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However, some are still waiting for help. It took Itsik Romano 11 months to get his money. He says he welcomes the changes.
“I hope these measures that they apply right now actually come into action when something like what happened last year happens again,” Romano told Global News.
Financial resources are also being invested to update flood maps in at risk areas to ensure better preparedness when disaster strikes.
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