Bella Coola under water.Laurie Sissons / The Globe and Mail
The day after the once-in-a-century flood hit the Bella Coola Valley last month, Allison Sayers was granted a licence to legally sell lamb from her farm.
Except there were precious few left to sell.
The massive flood had wiped out 75 per cent of her herd and destroyed all of her feed. The fencing had collapsed, the barn and guest cabin had filled with almost a metre of water, and the greenhouse had slid four metres off the foundation.
While the province has approved disaster financial assistance to reimburse homeowners, farmers, small businesses and charities whose properties were not insured against floods, Ms. Sayers fears she will not get relief funding even though she has lost tens of thousands of dollars.
To be eligible, a farm or small business must be a household's primary source of income, but Ms. Sayers runs several businesses from her home, and her husband Greg works as a physician assistant in Alaska.
"Everybody works off the farm," she said on Tuesday. "You cannot make ends meet as a farmer, it's just impossible."
Kathy Moore of Moore's Organic Market and Nursery said the DFA guidelines do not consider the conditions that people face in remote communities. Bella Coola residents strive to be self-sufficient, but the money made from local farms and tourism businesses barely covers costs.
"A lot of the businesses here are seasonal," Ms. Moore said. "You've got a lot of tourism-related businesses, farm-related businesses, bed and breakfasts, things like that where, to be able to make a living all year round, you pretty much have to diversify in more things, or find another job to support the business you're doing."
Ms. Sayers is in organizational development consulting and sells artisan baked goods and crafts, but her heart lies in sheep farming and growing produce for the local markets. Without financial help to rebuild the farm, though, she and her husband are considering shutting it down.
"It's silly to have 51 acres (20.6 hectares) of farmland when we can't get this place up and running again," she said as she shooed away the neighbour's cows, which had wandered into her now fenceless farm. "We can stay here with a broken-down greenhouse with a small garden and no animals, but it's not what we want at all."
Ms. Sayers and Ms. Moore have suffered damages to their homes as well. They have applied for financial aid, and the government was quick to process the forms and send in inspectors, but the criteria for reimbursement contain caveats, Ms. Moore said.
"It sounds really good when they come into your community and say they're here to help you, and then you read the fine print," she said.
According to Ms. Moore, items stored in the basement, including clothes, furniture and tools, will not be compensated because the area is not considered a living space. A house that is being renovated while the tenants live elsewhere is also not eligible.
Ms. Sayers said she submitted her application for farm relief three weeks ago, but has yet to hear back from the Provincial Emergency Program.
"I can only hope that means they're flitting around the table to change criteria to help all the people who are applying," she said.