Ottawa aiming to address top climate risks impacting the city

Climate change is expected to intensify over the next decade, forcing city officials to develop a new strategy to ensure the nation’s capital is ready for natural disasters.

The Environment and Climate Change Committee approved a plan to help guide the municipality as more extreme weather impacts its residents. Called, Climate Ready Ottawa, it includes a five-year blueprint aimed at protecting people, infrastructure and essential services.

The outline notes that the biggest risks the city is facing include flooding, extreme heat, changing seasons and severe weather.

Some of the programs developed by the plan included allowing necessary funds for flood and infrastructure resilience, cooling amenities, extreme weather preparness and environmental protection.

To do this, the strategy notes that $25 million will be needed over the next five years. The funds will address projects that are aligned with the plan. A further $149.5 million is confirmed to be used from rate taxes to upgrade water infrastructure and critical services to build flood resilience.

This project has been ongoing since 2020, with multiple studies to take into consideration on top of public meetings.

“Climate Ready Ottawa marks a significant advancement in the City’s approach to planning for and responding to climate risks,” the report to the committee reads.

An Environment and Climate Change Canada study showcases that for every dollar spent on adapting to the changing climate, the municipality saves $13 to $15 in avoided recovery costs.

In short, it is more cost-effective for cities to avoid cleaning up devastating natural disasters by putting in place protective measures.

The future is not looking good for the nation’s capital, as a joint study with the National Capital Commission noted the climate will look different in the next several decades.

“By 2050, Ottawa is projected to be significantly warmer and wetter, with more extreme weather like ice storms and damaging winds,” it reads.

Climate change impacting mental health

A national study published on Monday suggests about 2.3 per cent of people in Canada experience climate change anxiety at a level the authors considered “clinically relevant,” causing meaningful distress and disruption in their lives.

Climate anxiety often refers to the heightened distress a person feels about the impending threat of climate change. Those fears may be rooted in a direct experience with extreme weather or exposure to climate change messages.

While 2.3 per cent of respondents had that more severe manifestation of climate anxiety, about 15 per cent reported at least one symptom, says the study co-authored by researchers at the University of Alberta and Acadia University.

Severe cases of climate anxiety were more common among people who had directly experienced climate change impacts, women compared to men, those in Northern Canada compared to Southern Canada, younger generations compared to older generations, people in urban centres compared to rural areas, and people with lower incomes. It showed that, above all, Indigenous People had the highest prevalence of climate anxiety compared with any other group.

A second peer-reviewed study, published late last month and authored by a different group of researchers, found 37 per cent of Canadian teens who responded to a survey said they felt climate change was impacting their mental health.

Climate change, driven by planet-warming emissions from the burning of fossil fuels, is having serious impacts on the health of people in Canada, from worsening air quality due to intensifying wildfires to the northward spread of disease-carrying insects who thrive in the milder winters and longer summers.

With files from Jordan Omstead, The Canadian Press.