While governments across the country quarrel over the status and future of the federal carbon tax, adaptation measures are not being adequately prioritized in Canada’s fight against the effects of climate change.
Eight provincial premiers have opposed April’s increase in the carbon tax, which aims to reduce emissions. Most have called for a meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to discuss the issue, which he has so far declined.
While that debate continues, it has drawn attention away from the need to tangibly adapt the country for another summer of damaging climate-related events.
Funding shortfall
When Canada released its National Adaptation Strategy in 2023, the Canadian Climate Institute, an independent research organization, said “the federal government needs to move quickly to fund and implement it to insulate Canadians from the growing threat and mounting costs of climate disasters.”
It’s not clear that is happening.
Sarah Miller, research lead on the institute’s adaptation team, acknowledges that “reducing emissions has definitely dominated the national conversation” but believes adaptation is also needed.
“Adaptation has been called the ‘poor cousin’ of mitigation for a long time and I think that’s still true, although in the last year in particular we are starting to see more of a focus on adaptation.”
“The [National Adaptation Strategy] released last year is a major step forward in adaptation at the national level, but there are some key things that still need to be strengthened. One is that we still need to see significantly more investment in the strategy to get it off the ground.”
The federal budget to be delivered on April 16 may present an opportunity to signal a rebalancing of priorities. But a change in mindset will be required both within government and the public.
“There is still this myth that adaptation is expensive; that it’s a cost,” Miller says. “It’s really important that we start to shift that thinking to seeing adaptation as an investment that pays significant dividends…we can see benefits of up to $15 for every $1 that we invest in the form of adaptation.”
A report released last week by Corporate Knights, a media and research company headed by former Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page, evaluated government commitments versus actual spending on climate.
The report found that during the past six years, $535 million has been spent from the Disaster Mitigation and Adaptation Fund. “We estimate that $1.5 billion should have been disbursed by the end of FY 2023/24 in order for the program to stay on track to distribute the full $4 billion it has been allocated. This leaves a funding shortfall of $1 billion.”
That’s 64 per cent short of the target.
‘Fiddling while forests burn’
The Insurance Bureau of Canada, an industry association, has conducted their own climate spending analysis and is sharper in its criticism.
“It’s bizarre that given the events we’ve faced in recent years all the oxygen has been taken out of the room by carbon pricing and almost no attention has been given to protecting Canadians from floods and wildfire,” said Craig Stewart, vice-president of climate change and federal issues at the association.
“We believe the numbers are that about 95 per cent of federal government expenditures on climate has gone to mitigation and about 5 per cent to adaptation. That’s the order of magnitude.”
The association identifies wildfires as a particular concern.
Citing data from government and other sources, they found Canada succeeded in reducing annual national industrial emissions by 62 megatonnes between 2005 and 2021, arriving at 670 megatonnes.
But in the summer of 2023 alone, a group of 5,000 wildfires were responsible for emitting an estimated 480 megatonnes.
Consistent with international standards, these emissions are deemed to be “naturally occurring,” are not counted in Canada’s emissions inventory, and are untaxed despite being the largest source of carbon anywhere in the world.
Looking forward to the budget, Stewart hopes priorities will become more balanced.
“The budget is the government’s opportunity to restore credibility that it is serious about playing climate defense,” Stewart said.
“We are hoping to see funding allocated to achieve [National Adaptation Strategy] targets, or some sort of commitment that the government is serious about those targets… just as serious as it is about our emission reduction targets.”
Win-win
Murray Wilson began his career in the 1970s as a rappeler firefighter on helicopter crews in Canada’s boreal forest. He went on to spend decades as a Registered Professional Forester working across Western Canada.
“If Canada has a responsibility to do our part [in the climate battle], well, we’re not doing our part because our largest [emissions] source is getting ignored,” says Wilson, who is now retired. “That’s where we should be putting our effort in. That’s the biggest bang for your buck.”
Wilson points to the little-discussed scale of wildfires and attempts to put them into context. In 2023, an estimated 2.4 billion tonnes of carbon were released in Canada as a result of burning. By comparison, 670 million tonnes were released from all reported sources.
“Wildfires dwarfed all other activities,” Wilson says. “Oil and gas, for example, is under 200 million tonnes per year. We did over 12 years of oil and gas activity last year alone in wildfires.”
These fires resulted in the evacuation of more than 230,000 individuals in B.C., the Northwest Territories, Nova Scotia and elsewhere. But the associated emissions were not subject to a carbon price or counted toward national targets.
Wilson points out that “the atmosphere doesn’t care where the emissions come from.”
Wilson suggests responsible management is vital to adapting and improving the resiliency of Canada’s forests. He is critical of B.C.’s timber harvest decline in recent years — 63 million metres in 2017 to just over 32 million today — seeing it as irresponsible from a wildfire management perspective.
“Forest management is a scientifically controlled process. There are a lot of foresters, hydrologists, biologists and others looking at it, coming up with long-term plans which reduce fire risk, generate wealth and manage other values like water and danger to communities,” Wilson said. “It’s just a win-win.”
Sabine Dietz is Executive Director of CLIMAtlantic, an Atlantic Canada-based climate services organization that helps communities prepare for climate change through mitigation and adaptation. Given its geographic location, CLIMAtlantic is keenly aware of coastal issues.
“I wish decision makers would realize that there is no choice,” Dietz says. “To avoid wildfire, sea level rises, storm surges, hurricanes, atmospheric rivers, heat waves… We need to put things in place to manage them.”
Dietz says the amount of money currently being spent on climate adaptation is a “tiny fraction” of what’s needed.
“With politicians it’s always flashier to have windmills go up, to have more EV infrastructure in place, more EVs on the road and not to say, ‘we built this bridge better and now it doesn’t get washed out each year.’ That’s a really boring story.”
Dietz captures a concern shared from coast-to-coast. “The thing that I worry most about is not necessarily the effects of climate change, but our collective inability to really consider risks in a useful and manageable way and do things about it.”
Back in the mountains of B.C., Wilson acknowledges carbon pricing has a role, but concludes that “from my perspective, we’re not addressing the right things.”
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