People in communities threatened by natural disasters might have to consider moving, minister says

Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault says people in communities prone to natural disasters driven by a warming climate might have to consider moving.

"If we know that an area is going to be flooded or very exposed to hurricanes, is it a reasonable thing for us as governments — not just the federal government but other levels of government — to work with people, to maybe have to relocate them?" Guilbeault told CBC News in an interview.

"What we don't necessarily have at this point is all the analysis to be able to try and anticipate where these natural catastrophes will occur. But it may be the case that we will have to tell people, 'Your area is an area that's very exposed to these catastrophes and it would be better for you to move.'

"Now, can we force people to move? I mean, obviously, urban planning is not a federal jurisdiction." 

Ottawa is expected to release its National Adaptation Strategy in a little less than a month, ahead of the United Nations COP 27 conference in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt.

But the idea of relocation is already being talked about in some communities struck by post-tropical storm Fiona in Atlantic Canada and Quebec.

"The whole community doesn't have to relocate, of course," said Brian Button, mayor of the Newfoundland town of Port aux Basques — which saw many homes destroyed or washed out to sea.

"We have a bunch of people where there's nothing left here for them, their home has been destroyed, their property has been destroyed ... They don't want to live here anymore." 

Barbara Doiron, who runs an antique store on Prince Edward Island's northern coast, said relocation is not an easy option to accept. 

She said the two-storey building housing her business "was just lifted up by the floodwater and was just blown up against the fence at the top of the hill."

She said she intends to move the building back and raise it above the reach of floodwaters.

Doiron said many of the people who own homes in the area depend on the sea to make a living.

"[There] is a wharf that's used by the lobster fishermen, the oyster fishermen, and the mussel fishermen, pretty well ten months of the year. So it could never be moved," she said.

Doiron said the federal government should instead provide funding to rebuild sand dunes that were destroyed by Hurricane White Juan when it struck Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island in February 2004.