Liability as a Dilemma for Local Managers

Canadian Disaster Management Policy: Moving toward a Paradigm Shift?

“…In the United States, there have been cases in which disaster-affected residents have perceived that their local government was negligent in mitigating hazard risk and have sought compensation through the courts (Kusler 1985: Hutcheson 2003. Though cases like this have not yet emerged in Canada, Roman (2002) suggests that municipal governments could potentially be found negligent if they fail to implement reasonable measures to prevent or reduce the impacts of hazard events, based on "such factors as the nature and extent of the risk and the ease with which it could have been reduced or eliminated" (Roman 2002, 7-8).…”