New Brunswick properties will be flagged on the provincial land registry and denied further disaster relief once they’ve received $200,000 in assistance for any one type of natural incident. The newly revised rules for potential payouts are framed as an incentive for homeowners to leave flood-prone areas.

This comes after 12 events have been declared disasters since 2014. With affected residential property owners eligible for up to $160,000 per disaster, the provincial government delivered about $369 million in aid over the nine-year period.

“All the provinces and the federal government are struggling with the rising costs and how to address them,” reports New Brunswick’s Public Safety Minister, Kris Austin.

Under the new formula, homeowners could receive a higher one-time grant, but will be eligible for no more than $200,000 cumulatively for multiple overland or coastal flooding events. Additionally, the provincial government has lowered the threshold for offering buyouts of damaged properties. Homeowners will now be eligible if the damage sustained in any one disaster event is equivalent to at least 50 per cent of the property’s market value or when damage from multiple flooding events equates to 80 per cent of the market value.