As wildfires rage, natural disasters top of mind for Canada’s premiers
As Canada’s premiers discussed housing, health care and their fractious relationship with Ottawa at their meetings last week in Halifax, many remained concerned about climate-related natural disasters that have only worsened since they returned home.
“We recognize that emergency preparedness for natural disasters is more important than ever,” said Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston in his closing remarks on the final day of the Council of the Federation conference.
Canada’s provincial and territorial premiers met for three days and discussions about ongoing natural disasters were a constant topic of discussion, Houston said. This summer has been marked so far by multiple flash floods, including one this month in Nova Scotia that killed a 13-year-old boy, and Forest fires across the country, which resulted in the destruction of property and the evacuation of thousands of residents.
“We have several premiers around the table today fighting wildfires in their provinces. Of course, last week we had a flash flood that caused deaths,” the premier said on the second day of meetings. On July 11, Eli Young was swept into a ditch in a park in Wolfville, N.S., during a flash flood that caused significant damage in the western part of the province.
“Of course, discussions about emergency preparedness take on added significance and importance at a time like this,” he said.
Blair Feltmate, director of the Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation at the University of Waterloo, says talk is not enough. He said in an interview Wednesday that all levels of government need to treat climate-related natural disasters as a crisis and move quickly to mitigate them before they get worse.
Feltmate said governments could implement disaster mitigation strategies. “The problem is they’re not deploying the known solutions fast enough,” he said.
“We are in a red alert situation. Not only is the risk extremely high, but we realize that this risk will only increase. The current situation, with floods, forest fires and extreme heat episodes, will get worse. Climate change is irreversible,” he said.
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Northern Canada, which has also recently been plagued by wildfires, is suffering from a drought that has left the Mackenzie River so high that low-lying barges can no longer travel on it.
“We’re facing a situation right now where climate change has resulted in the lowest water levels we’ve ever seen on the Mackenzie River — it’s basically our highway,” Northwest Territories Premier RJ Simpson said last week at the premiers’ conference.
Simpson called for federal support for communities that rely on Canada’s longest river to access essential goods and food, as well as urgent funding to build the Mackenzie Valley Highway project to provide an alternative to river travel.
“We now find ourselves in a situation where people are virtually stranded, we have to fly in goods, which is going to double the price that the consumer is going to pay at the grocery store… It’s delaying the construction of new infrastructure. It’s a serious problem that we’re facing,” the prime minister said.
Since last week’s meetings, many wildfires in Western Canada have increased significantly.
As of Wednesday, British Columbia had about 430 active wildfires, 107 of which started in the previous 24 hours, and residents of about 470 properties were forced to evacuate. About 20 buildings have been destroyed by the Shetland Creek fire, including at least six homes. Wildfire officials say 8,099 square kilometres of the province has burned since April 1.
In Alberta, wildfire officials estimate that between 20,000 and 25,000 people have evacuated the community of Jasper since an order was issued Monday night. About 180 wildfires were burning in Alberta Wednesday night, and about a third of them were considered out of control.
Feltmate said concrete measures to mitigate wildfires are included in the federal wildfire prevention and mitigation strategy, which was released by Ottawa on June 5. That report recommends “proactive” fire prevention techniques such as prescribed burns, removing hazardous fuels such as dry shrubs and grasslands and educating the public on how to limit human-caused wildfires.
The Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation has also published guides to help individuals mitigate the risks of wildfires, extreme heat and flooding. These include removing mulch and plants from the immediate vicinity of your home if you live in a wildfire-prone area, checking for plumbing leaks and using heat-resistant curtains and fans to cool your home during a heat wave. More expensive recommendations include installing a sump pump, adding fireproof screens to exterior vents and replacing wooden fencing near the home with wire or metal fencing.
“The good news is we know where the problems are, we know where the key areas are that are at greatest risk of flooding, wildfires and extreme heat,” Feltmate said. “Now we need to act urgently.”
© 2024 The Canadian Press
