The province is changing its disaster relief program and that will affect how money is rolled out to communities with big bills for flooding, storm damage or frozen water mains.

The Ontario government announced on Monday that two new programs will be replacing the Ontario Disaster Relief Assistance Program.

The new Municipal Disaster Recovery Assistance Program will help municipalities deal with natural disasters that cause damage to infrastructure and public buildings. Municipalities will now have four months instead of 14 days to assess costs and request provincial assistance.

The other program, the Disaster Recovery Assistance for Ontarians Program, will provide faster aid for individuals, small businesses and farmers in the event of a disaster.

This program will do away with the requirement for volunteers to match provincial assistance.

The new programs will start in 2016 and municipalities can still access ODRAP until then.