After a disaster causing widespread damage the Government of the Northwest Territories may implement the NWT Disaster Assistance Policy (DAP). This policy allows the GNWT to provide Disaster Financial Assistance when the cost of a disaster exceeds what eligible recipients could reasonably be expected to pay, and is designed to help individuals, small businesses and non-profit organizations, and community governments with recovery costs.

The Disaster Assistance Policy (DAP)

• To be eligible for DAP, residents, small businesses, non-profit organizations, community governments, and all levels of government are responsible for taking reasonable action to prevent and minimize damage resulting from a disaster.
• Under the DAP, a single property can only be eligible for assistance up to 3 times, depending on whether mitigation measures were taken.The DAP program is not an insurance program to recover all losses. It is a government-funded assistance program to ensure essential community functioning and cover the essential basic needs of residents and businesses/organizations.
• Disaster assistance is limited to essential items, the loss of which was neither preventable nor insurable.

This program is modelled after the federal Disaster Financial Assistance Arrangements program.

The DAP lays out criteria to be considered when determining whether the DAP should be applied, including:

• The event was an emergency with damage so widespread that a significant number of people or properties were affected
• The health, safety and welfare of the affected residents were at risk
• The community conducted appropriate emergency operations
• The community, small businesses and community governments made serious effort to protect property and minimize risk
• The event meets criteria of the federal Disaster Financial Assistance Arrangements.