Property owner Adam Norris surveys the damage at his home in Drayton Valley, Alta., on May 8. Canada struggled this summer to control wildfires that forced thousands to flee, halted oil production and threaten to raze towns.WALTER TYCHNOWICZ/AFP/Getty Images
Blair Feltmate is head of the Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation at the University of Waterloo.
At COP28, nearly 70,000 delegates from 197 countries have descended on Dubai to renew their vows to lower greenhouse-gas emissions and better prepare for extreme weather. Canada’s delegation at the climate summit is armed with 26 targets from the newly minted National Adaptation Strategy to guide the country’s preparedness for extreme weather.
On the surface, all seems good – but there may be wrinkles.
Before the NAS, Canada authored other reports espousing means to limit the effects of extreme weather. In 2016 there was the Pan-Canadian Framework on Clean Growth and Climate Change; Measuring Progress on Adaptation and Climate Resilience followed in 2018.
In both cases, the brief profile of these reports was followed by only modest changes. When bad weather followed, the steep costs and losses mounted. For example, in 2023, extreme weather hammered an unprepared Nova Scotia with flooding and wildfires – beyond heavy financial losses, four Nova Scotians lost their lives.
Against this track record, what advice on preparedness for extreme weather should Canada follow from the NAS when its delegation returns from Dubai?
At the top of the list, Canada must get its housing protection and resilience in order, in anticipation of more extreme weather driven by a climate that will continue to warm. In 2022, global carbon emissions from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas rose 1.2 per cent.
Limiting the impact of extreme weather on residential housing alleviates two otherwise costly outcomes: first, the incapacity of a homeowner to go to work in the initial aftermath of a flood or fire, and second, the direct financial hit of the flood or fire to the owner.
The substantial loss of working days was evident with the floods in Calgary in 2013 and wildfires in British Columbia this year. When homes flood or burn, most homeowners cannot – or will not – leave for work in the days after.
Indeed, the average homeowner who experiences basement flooding misses seven workdays. The vulnerability of communities bears emphasis: Essential workers may not show up at the local utility, water treatment plant, telecommunications facility or health care centre.
Catastrophic flooding in communities across Canada from 2010 to 2020 reduced the average selling prices of homes in those communities by 8.2 per cent. Ten per cent of homes in the country (1.5 million residences) are no longer eligible for flood insurance. This financially exposes flood-affected homeowners, as the average cost of a flooded basement is $43,000.
And the effects of flooding are not restricted to homeowners. For example, in the Greater Toronto Area, 500,000 tenants live in basement apartments, many of whom have limited means to pay for a hotel if a flood literally puts them on the street.
In forested regions, wildfires are proving increasingly challenging: Canada’s record-shattering 2023 season burned an area three times the size of Nova Scotia (approximately 18.5 million hectares). These losses were eight times the annual average area burned over the past 25 years; they forced 200,000 Canadians from their homes and ignited a nationwide call for large-scale investment in wildfire resilience.
There is hope despite the seemingly intractable challenge of flooding and wildfires affecting Canada’s residential housing market. Homeowners will act when given practical, cost-effective and easy-to-follow advice on how to protect their homes from these disasters. The reason they don’t act now is that they don’t know what to do.
This leads us back to Canada’s near-term NAS target: “By 2025, 50 per cent of Canadians have taken concrete actions to better prepare for and respond to climate change risks facing their household.” There needs to be a national campaign to bring home flood and wildfire protection to Canadians.
Currently, 17 Canadian cities are sharing flood and wildfire guidance with homeowners. Canada has the authority to build upon this positive momentum and ensure the successful execution of the NAS.
What we must take away from COP28: the need to protect houses from extreme weather
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12.12.2023
Property owner Adam Norris surveys the damage at his home in Drayton Valley, Alta., on May 8. Canada struggled this summer to control wildfires that forced thousands to flee, halted oil production and threaten to raze towns.WALTER TYCHNOWICZ/AFP/Getty Images
Blair Feltmate is head of the Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation at the University of Waterloo.
At COP28, nearly 70,000 delegates from 197 countries have descended on Dubai to renew their vows to lower greenhouse-gas emissions and better prepare for extreme weather. Canada’s delegation at the climate summit is armed with 26 targets from the newly minted National Adaptation Strategy to guide the country’s preparedness for extreme weather.
On the surface, all seems good – but there may be wrinkles.
Before the NAS, Canada authored other reports espousing means to limit the effects of extreme weather. In 2016 there was the Pan-Canadian Framework on Clean Growth and Climate Change; Measuring Progress on Adaptation and Climate Resilience followed in 2018.
In both cases, the brief profile of these reports was........
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