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As spring flooding devastates communities in Western and Northern Canada, the federal government is calling on Canadians to offer their ideas for adapting to climate-related disasters.
Ottawa is close to completing its first-ever national adaption strategy. It launched a public consultation process Monday to solicit input from Canadians about their plans for dealing with floods and heat domes.
In a news release, Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault called adapting to climate change “a two-front war” and said businesses and communities must “play both offence and defence” to lower emissions and find ways to lessen the impact of global warming.
Guilbeault stated that “We must reduce carbon emissions and prepare for the consequences of climate change.”
Canadians have witnessed all sorts of severe weather in recent years. Last summer, extreme heat in B.C drove a deadly heat wave and forest fires destroyed the town of Lytton, B.C. The south of B.C. was then hit with torrential rain. November brought torrential rains that flooded communities and washed away bridges and roads.
Recent record flooding in central Manitoba and southern Manitoba has brought climate adaptation to the forefront.
Resilience in communities
The launch of its three-monthly plan is being planned by the government online consultation with these disasters in mind.
Guilbeault said the adaptation strategy could consider measurable targets — by, for example, estimating how many fewer Canadians would be affected by flooding or forest fires due to identified measures.
Background documents the government shared also suggest the strategy could lead to standardizing the emergency alert system, expanding the network of first responders investing in equipment and designing roads, railways and other infrastructure to be more resilient.
A discussion paper released today as well suggests some things that could be included in the government’s adaptation plan: relocating people from high-flood-risk areas; standardizing the emergency alert system; expanding the network of first responders; and investing in equipment and designing roads, railways and other infrastructure to be more resilient.
The discussion paper does not go into much detail but it does point to a role in the health care system as well as for nature-based climate solutions such as tree planting and restoring vegetation. There’s also no mention of how much it will cost to make the changes required, or whether the public or private sector would absorb the costs.
The Insurance Bureau of Canada is a trade association representing the industry. It estimates that the Canadian economy would have to spend around $5 billion annually to address severe weather damage due to climate change.
Craig Stewart, IBC’s vice president of climate change issues and federal issues, stated that these costs would need to be shared by insurance companies, banks, property owners, and governments.
Stewart stated that “the challenge is too big for governments to accept for themselves.” “It doesn’t need to be borne entirely by governments.”
Consultations close on July 15, and government plans to release its final strategy this fall.
Ryan Ness (director of adaptation research at Canadian Climate Institute), who studies climate policy, stated that “a good national adaptation strategy will determine the concrete things needed to be done.”
Ness said the strategy should identify flooding as one of Canada’s greatest climate change-related risks and one of the areas requiring immediate investment.
Such a strategy would lay out a “game plan,” he said, that could include information on which communities face the highest risk of flooding and which will face more risk in future because of climate change, while offering specific solutions.
