The federal government's decision to earmark $2 billion for disaster mitigation is a "big win" for the entire country, according to an expert in catastrophic natural events.

"Natural disasters impact everybody," Glenn McGillivray, managing director of the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction, told CTV's Your Morning on Monday. McGillivray says the $2 billion is necessary to build preventive infrastructure to prepare for the floods and wildfires that are exacerbated by climate change.

McGillivray's Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction evaluates where the greatest natural disaster risks exist in the country.

"Things are really changing in Canada," McGillivray said, adding that natural disasters have caused at least $1 billion in damage each year for the last several years.

Last year was particularly costly, with insurance companies paying out $4.9 billion, in large part due to wildfire damage in Fort McMurray.

But McGillivray says insurers are not the only ones who eat the cost of a major disaster. "When something happens in Canada, insurance companies pick up part of the bill, but taxpayers pick up a lot of it," he said.

The $2 billion for disaster mitigation will go toward subsidizing provincial and municipal projects meant to protect communities against floods and wildfires. Essentially, the plan is to pay for prevention instead of recovery, McGillivray says.

"You're going to pay one way or the other, (so) you might as well try to mitigate the impact," he said.

The Insurance Bureau of Canada says the majority of natural disaster claims are triggered by overland flooding in the Atlantic and Prairie provinces.

Some major infrastructure projects have proven quite effective at preventing such disasters in the first place. The Red River Floodway, for instance, is thought to have saved an estimated $6 billion in 1997 alone, when it held the river in check.

Federal and provincial lawmakers have been boosting their disaster mitigation budgets in recent years. In 2015, for instance, Alberta earmarked $447 million for disaster mitigation, following disastrous flooding that caused $6 billion in damage two years earlier.

"All levels of government have to step in, and they are," McGillivray said. "We need more of this, but it's a great start."