Extreme weather means more flooding; more preparedness issues

THE ROLLERCOASTER WEATHER WE’RE EXPERIENCING

provided more than a little bit of rain, including thunderstorms, that combined with March’s snow cover to provide ideal conditions for flooding. The GRCA issued a few flood warnings/watches over the weekend alone.

If you live in, say, West Montrose, flooding is top of mind every spring. For the most part, this area doesn’t have the flooding concerns that have become huge in coastal areas. In that vein, it’s no surprise British Columbia tops the list when it comes to Canadians most worried about severe weather and flooding.

A new national survey found 73 per cent of BC respondents had such worries, higher than the average of 58 per cent Canada-wide. Ontario was bang on that 58 per cent figure.

Flooding is a genuine risk. It accounted for 40 per cent of weather-related catastrophes in Canada since 1970, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Flooding is Canada’s greatest climate-related risk. More than 1.5 million households are highly exposed to flooding, according to the final report of the Task Force on Flood Insurance and Relocation, which was issued last summer.

STEVE KANNON Editor's Point of View

enced across Atlantic Canada during Hurricane Fiona, riverfront flooding, as experienced during the eastern Canada floods in 2017 and 2019, and urban overland flooding.

“This would include offering reinsurance through a federal Crown corporation and a separate insurance subsidy program,” the budget document said.

The timing is not random, as flooding is one of the problems likely to get worse as we experience more extreme weather due to climate change.

“Recent trends are exacerbating both the flood hazard, as well as increasing Canada’s exposure and vulnerability to flooding. Climate change is projected to increase the frequency, severity and variability of all types of flooding (pluvial, fluvial and coastal) in the coming decades. At the same time, Canada’s exposure to flooding is growing as a result of increasing housing, infrastructure development, and asset concentration in floodprone areas,” notes the report from the Task Force on Flood Insurance and Relocation.

The region is usually spared such hardships – you have to go back almost five decades to the Cambridge flood of 1974 to find something on a large scale. We’re also fairly immune from the hurricanes, wildfires and earthquakes we see elsewhere on the globe. And while tornados are a possibility, past occurrences haven’t come with the same frequency or wrought the kind of destruction we see in, say, the US Midwest.

We’re not immune, however, from the impacts of a shifting climate, including more extreme weather.

If climate models are on target, we can expect more extreme weather days ahead, even putting aside the human contribution to global warming/climate change.

Predicted changes would significantly decrease the duration of the annual snow season and lengthen the growing season. They could increase the frequency and severity of extreme heat events in summer.

If the models hold, we can expect more than just rising temperatures. Greater impacts could include changes in precipitation patterns, in soil moisture, and possibly in the frequency and intensity of severe weather events.

Changes in weather patterns may affect the frequency and intensity of pollution episodes.

Increased heat stress, and possible increases in the number or severity of episodes of poor air quality and extreme weather events could all have a negative effect on human health. A warmer climate may facilitate migration of disease-carrying organisms from other regions.

Ontario falls prey to a number of natural hazards: drought, heat waves, floods, rain, snow and ice storms, tornadoes, and even hurricanes, although they’re rare. Small changes in average climate conditions are expected to generate significant changes in extreme events.

Experts anticipate fewer extremely cold days and more extremely hot days and more severe thunderstorms, which can cause injury and property damage.

Staying out of the climate change debate, the insurance industry is nonetheless spending a considerable amount of time crunching the numbers – assessing risk is their business, after all – and they see plenty of reasons to worry. Lately, the industry has been more proactive, essentially urging mitigation efforts through pitches to government and the public alike – you may have seen the television commercials. Insurance companies, which top no one’s most-popular list, aren’t doing so for the public’s benefit per se. The industry doesn’t care about you, it cares about its profits. In the ideal world, it collects ever-increasing premiums and pays out nothing, with government forcing consumers to keep paying nonetheless.

But its goals somewhat align with the public’s in that most people want to avoid making claims as much as insurers want to avoid paying them.

We seem destined for more flooding this year, with more to come as the years go by.

Most of the predictions based on climate modelling show more changes coming, none for the better. AGW skeptic or otherwise, there’s no denying the climate is in flux, and that we’ll have to deal with the consequences.

Severe weather is on the rise across Canada. Events that used to happen every 40 years can now be expected to happen every six. Homes are damaged more frequently by heavy rainfall, hail damage, storm surges, tornadoes and hurricanes. Once-ina-century flooding events such as the one in southern Alberta in 2013, which costs billions, will likely

That’s what prompted the federal government’s inclusion in last week’s budget some $31.7 million over three years for a flood insurance program. The goal is protecting households at high risk of flooding that don’t have access to adequate or affordable insurance. The new program will consider damage from storm surge, as experi- →KANNON 8

Find Us: 20B Arthur Street North, Elmira, Ontario, N3B 1Z9

Contact Us:

Phone: 519-669-5790

Toll Free: 1-888-966-5942

Fax: 519-669-5753

Email: info@woolwichobserver.com newsroom@woolwichobserver.com Web: https://observerxtra.com

Professional Associations:

• Ontario Community Newspaper Association (OCNA)

• News Media Canada

• The Greater KW Chamber of Commerce

About Us: Independent, locally-owned and the only weekly community newspaper serving the residents of Woolwich and Wellesley Townships. Real news, real reporting concentrating on the close-tohome issues in our communities. When it comes to reaching our residents, The Observer is unsurpassed.

Press Oversight: The Observer is a member of the National Newsmedia Council - an independent organization established to deal with acceptable journalistic practises and ethical behaviour. If you have concerns about editorial content, contact: 519-669-5790 ext 103 or editor@woolwichobserver.com.

If you are not satisfied with the response and wish to file a complaint, visit mediacouncil.ca or call 1-844-877-1163 for more information.

Subscriptions:

Annual subscriptions to The Observer mailed within Canada/U.S. are available by contacting the office or by visiting us online: observerxtra.com/subscribe.

The annual fee is $39.55 (Tax included)

Delivery Concerns:

Issues with local delivery can be directed to The Record by calling 519-894-3000.

Letters to the Editor:

Letters must be exclusive to this publication on a topic of relevance to the community. It must contain the author's name, address, contact info and be no more than 300 words. Letters may be edited for length and clarity. The Observer declines announcements, poetry, thank-you and unsigned letters. Deliver to: editor@woolwichobserver. com or online: observerxtra.com/letters

Store: www.newsmart.ca

Warmer temperatures, longer days and the blooming of cherry blossoms happen in the springtime in Canada.

Springtime is also synonymous with Maple Syrup season where maple trees are tapped to produce a sweet export.

In Quebec, springtime is ushered in with free maple syrup for residents paid by the provincial government promoting the province as the world’s number one source for this sweet commodity.

ↆ LAST WEEK:

True – It is unclear who started National Pencil Day but has been observed since 1970.

True – National Pencil Day commemorates the day Hyman Lipman received his patent for the modern pencil and celebrated around the world to appreciate the humble, yet essential writing tool.

Lie – Pencil sharpening competitions are not hosted in any Canadian city. The most famous is “The World Pencil Sharpening Championship” in the UK using a hand-crank sharpener where winner is determined by the length and sharpness of the pencil point.

DYER: The country less strategically relevant, the people will suffer yet more

Absent any US pressure to bail Pakistan out, the International Monetary Fund is only interested in whether its loans will be repaid. From that perspective the current coalition, a military regime or a restored Imran Khan government are all equally unreliable borrowers, so the loan doesn’t come through and Pakistan sinks deeper

KANNON: We’re content to react, not be proactive

→ FROM 7 reoccur much sooner than 2113. The same with disasters elsewhere. There’s no denying the devastation, and the huge economic impact. into poverty, debt and despair.

Despite the warnings, perhaps the largest barrier to any major change is human nature: we’re quite content with our lives today, and see no need to change that for some potential long-term benefit, one that’s unlikely to materialize in our lifetimes.

Interestingly enough, should the forecasted problems arise, it won’t matter at that point if the climate changes are naturally occurring or manmade: we’ll still have to cope with such things as rising sea levels, increased storm activity, desertification and other threats to farmland, to name a few. Expect the unpredictability to continue.

Of the three parts into which the Britain’s former Indian empire was eventually divided, Pakistan is now indisputably the poorest. Gross Domestic Product per capita is only $1,500 in Pakistan, compared to $2,250 for India and almost $2,500 for Bangladesh. The gap will grow even wider, because Pakistan’s popu- lation is growing twice as fast as the other two.

To some extent Pakistan’s poor performance is due to its perpetual arms race with far bigger India because of the territorial dispute over Kashmir, but it cannot be denied that a large part of the fault lies with the country’s corrupt and chaotic politics.

Two extremely wealthy political dynasties, the

Bhuttos and the Sharifs, have dominated civilian governments for decades.

Imran Khan is an interloper, but about as helpful in terms of reforming Pakistan’s politics as Donald Trump has been to America’s. And the army is always the tail that wags the dog. But none of it matters much anymore, except to the long-suffering Pakistanis themselves.

FEDERAL MINISTER: Few answers for Canadians, small businesses looking for relief from inflation, rising taxes

Devries wanted better answers, however.

“I don’t feel like I really got an answer as to why. If you look at the billions of dollars that Loblaws is making in profits, how do you justify that? It’s the Canadian taxpayer that’s paying. It’s the grocery buyer that’s paying,” she said.

The minister also answered questions about the April 1 carbon tax increase, which went up $15 to $65 per tonne and whether that is causing undue stress to average Canadians.

“People are stressed…. These are difficult times, people are worried about the price of groceries, they’re worried about putting gas in their car, they’re worried about the rent. And that’s one of the reasons we’re working so hard to try to address affordability issues,” he said.

Blair said the govern- ment needs to do a better job of helping Canadians understand the carbon tax rebate that they receive four times a year. Based on income in Ontario the rebate can be up to $488 for an individual, $244 for a spouse or common-law partner, $122 per child under 19 or $244 for the first child in a single-parent family.

While Blair highlighted the planned grocery rebate that was included in the budget, it is only a one-time payment of up to $467 for eligible couples with children or $225 for seniors and $234 for single Canadians.

“We are dealing with a once in a generation increase in inflation, particularly in food inflation,” he said.

Blair called inflation a “temporary setback” that he is hopeful will be resolved with the Bank of Canada’s multiple increase to the interest rate over the last year.

“Putting something permanent in place for a temporary problem isn’t, in my opinion, the right thing to do. People are struggling right now,” he said.

Land ll and Recycling Centre Tours

Saturday, April 22, 2023 | Tour times: 9 - 11:30 a.m.

Waste Management Operations Centre: 1516 Glasgow Street, Kitchener

Celebrate

News that hits home. Local people in action.

Sports tips are always welcome.

Email: newsroom@woolwichobserver.com

Team Scores: observerxtra.com/scores

Putting on the stripes Titans next face London

Coming off a 114-102 win over the Sudbury Five on April 2, the KW Titans are in London Saturday to take on the Lightning. The Titans, 3-9, will return the favour April 12, hosting the Lightning at The Aud. www.kwtitans.com