Keep climate a national priority
Starting about a decade ago, three major federal frameworks were launched to help protect Canadian communities and homeowners from the impacts of extreme weather driven by irreversible climate change. The frameworks focused primarily on Canada’s two most costly weather perils: flooding and wildfire.
The first, The Pan-Canadian Framework on Clean Growth and Climate Change, was released in 2016. This report had an entire chapter devoted to adaptation to extreme weather. But shortly after its release, the document was relegated to life on a shelf.
Then, in 2018, the federal government released a second framework titled Expert Panel on Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience Results. This document was more than a year in the making, and drew upon the advice of 22 experts. It, too, suffered the fate of its predecessor shortly after publication.
Most recently, in 2023, Environment and Climate Change Canada released the National Adaptation Strategy (NAS), which set 26 adaptation targets with delivery dates spanning from 2024 to 2040.
To avoid the adaptation strategy becoming “strike three” in federal attempts to advance adaptation, monitoring of targets should focus on those that serve most Canadians, have a near-term time horizon, are not cost-prohibitive, and are not technically challenging to implement.
A strategy target that meets all four of these attributes and should, therefore, be at the top of Canada’s adaptation to-do list, is: “By 2025, 50 per cent of Canadians have taken concrete actions to better prepare for and respond to climate change risks facing their household.” Recognizing that residential basement flooding, followed by homes burning, are Canada’s two most costly climate perils, failure to meet this adaptation target is not an option.
The cost of flooding and wildfires across Canada is growing exponentially. From 1983 to 2008, the property and casualty insurance sector paid out annual claims in the range of $400 tp$700 million. However, from 2009 to 2024 (after correcting for inflation and wealth accumulation), annual claims have averaged $2.8 billion per year, with 2024 topping out at $8.5 billion.
And the costs don’t stop there. Every dollar in insurable loss is matched by three to four dollars in uninsurable damage incurred by governments, businesses and individuals.
The failure of Canada’s housing market to prepare for extreme weather is felt beyond the insurance sector. From 2014 to 2019, the average selling price of Canadian homes in communities that experienced catastrophic flooding, dropped by 8.2 per cent.
Clearly, it is in the best interest of Canadian homeowners to follow the National Adaptation Strategy recommendations to limit the vulnerability of homes to flooding and wildfire.
Fortunately, through support from such agencies as the Standards Council of Canada, National Research Council, Canadian Standards Association and the Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation, simple and cost-effective guidance is available to homeowners to counter the growing costs of flooding and wildfire.
For example, homeowners can limit the risk of basement flooding by regularly checking to ensure their sump pumps are working. This can easily be done by pouring a bucket of water into the sump well. As it stands, many homeowners discover their sump pump is seized when they wade into a basement full of sewer water.
Other flood protection actions include placing plastic covers over outside window wells, positioning a flood alarm on the basement floor, and installing a backwater valve to stop sewer water from backing up into the basement through the floor drain.
Actions to limit residential wildfire risk in forested regions include removing combustible ground cover close to the house and replacing it with decorative stone, not storing firewood at the backdoor, and replacing wooden fences with chain links. More extensive actions include the installation of fire-resistant siding, back porches, and Class A fire-resistant metal or cement fibre shingles.
Protecting a home from the growing threat of floods and wildfires has the additional upside of offering homeowners financial and psycho-social benefits. For example, with the average cost of repairs following basement flooding in Canada being $54,000, the upside of spending hundreds (or even thousands) of dollars on protection is self-evident.
As for the psycho-social impact, homeowners that have experienced basement flooding report feeling anguish during thunderstorms even years after experiencing a major flood. Studies are currently underway to document spikes in claims for mental health-related prescriptions, counselling services and lost time from work claims in flood-stricken communities.
The benefits of preparing Canadian homeowners to limit their exposure to flood and wildfire risk are compelling. The federal government should launch a national educational campaign on home flood and wildfire preparedness to ensure the adaptation strategy does not end up as another policy sitting on a shelf.
Blair Feltmate heads the Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation at the University of Waterloo.
Comments