‘Before the flood’: The growing urgency of adapting to the climate crisis

Fire seasons are longer. Storms are stronger and more frequent. Floods are catastrophic. In Canada there is a growing reality that adaptation to climate change is urgently needed.

The world is rapidly barreling toward climate change tipping points. Floods, fires and heat waves are hitting with growing ferocity. There is, in Canada as elsewhere, a growing reality that adaptation is urgent and necessary.

With that knowledge growing, on Thursday the federal government announced a $1.6 billion spending package to help provinces, municipalities and First Nations deal with the effects that are already being witnessed across the country.

The thinking, says federal emergency preparedness minister Bill Blair, is that it’s far more cost effective to deal with climate-related adaptation measures first, as opposed to opening the purse strings after tragedy strikes.

“For every dollar we spend on prevention, on stronger infrastructure, we can save as much as ten dollars in recovery,” Blair said at a news conference in Prince Edward Island.

The adaptation measures, he says, include looking at “building codes, where we build, how we build,” as well as efforts “to develop a national flood insurance program” to better inform planning decisions. Better flood mapping is also part of the government’s strategy.

One community that is showing the way in that respect is Peterborough, Ont., about two hours east of Toronto. Nearly twenty years ago, it was severely impacted by floods of epic proportions that any resident old enough to have lived through them can hardly forget.

Residents described the water as “buckets coming down, not drops.” Another resident said it was “like Niagara Falls.”

More than 150 millimeters of rain fell on the city in less than an hour that day in July 2004. Since the historic event, Peterborough has been working to upgrade its infrastructure.