Floods in Canada Likely to Get Worse

November 22nd, 2015  |  News

Everyone remembers the 2013 floods that washed out whole communities across the country. Lives were endangered, homes were lost and land was ruined but it’s only going to get worse, says John Pomeroy, a Hydrologist with University of Saskatchewan.

He states that measures aren’t being put into place fast enough to protect people and property from future losses. Despite several innovative solutions to handling flood waters, little has been done to put those measures into place.

“In Canmore, homes along Cougar Creek were almost entirely rebuilt despite creekbed mitigations that cannot handle a debris flow from the size of the 2013 event,” he wrote in a recent report.

Insurance companies have been at end of their wits with trying to solve the flooding problem, said Blair Feltmate, chair of the Climate Change Adaptation Project (CCAP) at the University of Waterloo.

He points out that in nine out of the last eleven years, insurance companies have paid out more than they collected in premiums.

“You hear lots of people talk about climate change, but very little on adaptation to climate change,” says Feltmate.

Governments need to make these issues a priority but it’s been slow moving.

"What they don't realize is that in failing to weather-harden our communities, they will end up paying more in disaster relief,” Feltmate concluded.

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