A group called Climate Proof Canada says it wants the federal government to think short term as well as long term as it develops it’s Adaptation Strategy.
The plan for climate change is supposed to be released in November.
Craig Stewart is a spokesperson for the group and says they are worried that the federal government will produce a watered-down version.
“We’ve been a little fearful that it’s going to be a fairly loose and lax strategy,” states Stewart.
“We’ve been pushing hard, as a coalition, that this strategy be robust, firm, with clear targets so we know what governments are going to do to help protect us from floods, wildfires and severe weather events,”
Stewart adds the federal government already has programs to tackle greenhouse gas emissions, but they would like that to go farther.
“Help homeowners to deeply retrofit their homes, whether its by elevating them, reinforcing their basements. That’s more costly but we’ve got interest fee loans now available from the federal government. But this sort of work isn’t eligible for those loans programs. So we already have the programming.”
Climate Proof Canada is a broad coalition of disaster relief, insurance, municipal and environmental organizations.
Stewart says they would like the Adaption Strategy to include a five year plan, starting next year.
Climate Proof Canada says while the longer-term impacts of the climate crisis must be addressed, considering the increasing number of extreme weather events already occurring across Canada, we cannot wait until 2030 to limit the impacts of climate change in this country
