Canada needs a proactive approach to disaster resilience

Canadians have long passed the point where sandbagging shorelines and bailing out basements constitute an adequate flood response. Climate risks continue to grow and the impacts of flooding—both financial and non-financial—are toppling like dominoes. It’s time that natural disaster resilience and climate adaptation become an economic and public safety focus across Canada. According to an Insurance Institute of Canada report, the cost of insurance claims is expected to more than double over the course of this decade, hitting $5-billion annually. Historically, water damage has been the most expensive. The federal government has said that flooding causes more than $1-billion in direct damage to households, property, and infrastructure each year. This burden is not shouldered exclusively by insurance providers, but on all Canadians through increased premiums and publicly funded aid packages. While there’s no magic solution to prevent future floods, there are ways to mitigate their impacts and make our communities more resilient. Natural infrastructure like wetlands is highly effective at flood attenuation while providing a host of complementary benefits like trapping and storing carbon, replenishing ground water, improving water quality and supporting biodiversity. Roger d’Eschambault is the president of Ducks Unlimited Canada. Photograph courtesy of Ducks Unlimited Canada A new coalition that’s working to change the trajectory of climate-related costs by tapping into this natural power of wetlands is the aptly-named Nature Force. Made up of 15 leading insurance companies, Nature Force is an action-oriented initiative that funds natural infrastructure projects in areas surrounding urban centres. To begin, Nature Force is focusing its efforts in highly populated areas of B.C.’s Fraser River delta as well as in southern Ontario and Quebec where impacts of overland flooding, sea-level rise, and storm surges are particularly high. This kind of investment by the private sector is not only pioneering, but also it’s precisely the kind of leadership that’s needed. Because the reality is that every industry is looking down the barrel of climate change, with the future of their operations, supply chains, and the well-being of their stakeholders squarely in the crosshairs. As Canada’s multi-billion-dollar insurance industry strives to respond to the devastation of climate disasters, it’s forward-thinking commitments through Nature Force are helping us prepare for the next one. Ultimately, any private investments in climate change and disaster resilience must be combined with strong, public commitments to land-use planning. That’s why it’s encouraging that Nature Force is launching at a time when the Canadian government is promising to take more aggressive steps to modernize its approach to disaster management. We’ve heard about the development of new national flood maps as well as the creation of a national insurance program to protect homeowners in high-risk flood zones. However, these tools only go so far. The greatest economic gains will come from the development of comprehensive wetland conservation and loss offsetting policies by provincial and federal governments. Across the country, provinces must also establish mandatory mitigation and offsetting sequences to replace unavoidable losses of wetlands. These are urgent needs. Because despite the significant benefits they provide, wetlands continue to be among the most threatened ecosystems in Canada. It’s estimated that up to 70 per cent of wetlands have been lost in southern areas of the country—and up to 95 per cent in densely populated areas. Implementing standardized methods of calculating the full ecosystem service value of wetlands including carbon sequestration, disaster resilience, water quality, and biodiversity will lead to better decisions. Governments must recognize that these economic and environmental values are central to an effective, holistic approach to land-use planning. And this realization can’t come soon enough. We know the clock is ticking toward the next major flood event, and without increased efforts to protect Canada’s wetlands, time is also running out to ensure an essential line of defence. It goes without saying that if any of my friends and neighbours are racing to keep flood waters from their front doors, I’ll be there in a moment’s notice to sandbag, bail, and battle whatever is thrown our way. But looking to the future, in defiance of rising flood waters and skyrocketing insurance costs, ongoing and immediate commitments in nature-based solutions are what’s needed to keep our heads above both. Roger d’Eschambault is the president of Ducks Unlimited Canada. DUC is the conservation delivery agent for Nature Force and currently manages more than 6.6 million acres of wetlands and associated natural habitats across the country. The Hill Times