Feds to Spend $1.6 Billion on New National Climate Adaptation Strategy

Minister of Environment and Climate Change Steven Guilbeault rises during question period on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Oct. 21, 2022. The Canadian Press/Adrian Wyld

The federal government has announced it will spend $1.6 billion on its newly unveiled “National Adaptation Strategy,” which it says is a commitment to a “whole-of-society approach” to tackling climate change.

The funding will go to local communities for the purpose of reinforcing infrastructure, such as bridges and roads, so that communities can  survive “extreme weather events” like forest fires and floods.

It will also “enable engagement and work with Indigenous communities on the development of region-specific health initiatives linked to changing climate conditions,” the government said in a statement on Nov. 24.

The funding announcement comes along with existing federal commitments to spend over $8 billion on climate adaption measures, including natural disaster response measures.

Along with the funding, the new national plan implements federal “objectives and targets” that are meant to “focus policy and spending on measurable results.” The government did not elaborate on all the targets, but said it has opened the strategy to the provinces and territories over the next 90 days for consultation.

“We must not only reduce the emissions that cause climate change, we must also adapt to the changes that are upon us,” Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault said in the statement.

The National Adaptation Strategy was unveiled Nov. 24 in St. Peter’s Bay, Prince Edward Island, and was attended Emergency Preparedness Minister Bill Blair and Veterans Affairs Minister Lawrence MacAulay, while Ginette Petitpas Taylor, the minister responsible for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, attended by videoconference.

MacAulay said extreme weather events in Canada have recently been “made worse by climate change.”

“The destruction—it’s heartbreaking,” MacAulay said in reference to the aftermath of Hurricane Fiona, which struck Atlantic Canada in September.

The government says flooding is Canada’s most expensive hazard, with “average residential costs” reaching $2.9 billion annually. The government also estimates average annual losses from natural disasters to reach $15.4 billion by 2030, which it claims can be significantly reduced by spending on adaptation measures.

“Climate change is the single biggest threat to human health,” said Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos in a statement. “Adapting to and mitigating the inevitable effects of a changing climate is crucial to improving public health.”

Response

NDP and Green Party MPs voiced support for the national adaptation strategy, although Green Party MP Mike Morrice said he would like to see even more investments made by the federal government to fight climate change.

“We continue to pursue the governing party,” he told Parliament Hill reporters on Nov. 24.

Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre is yet to comment on the new adaptation strategy, but has previously said that the Liberals’ climate action initiatives are merely part of a “tax plan.”

Poilievre has been especially critical of the federal carbon tax, which is set to increase in March 2023.

“[The prime minister’s] carbon tax has not hit a single, solitary emissions reduction target. It has not worked,” he said in the House of Commons on Oct. 5.

“He has a tax plan, not a climate plan, that has raised money for his government but it’s not reduced emissions or hit targets.”

The government’s current climate plan seeks to reach net-zero greenhouse-gas emissions across the country by 2050.