Quebec infrastructure must adapt to a future with more extreme weather: experts
Quebecers will need to rethink how they design their homes to prevent further destruction from the effects of climate change, experts say.
It's a solemn reality that comes in the face of a devastating storm that killed 10 people and destroyed several homes in Quebec and Ontario over the weekend.
Homes in Quebec should be built to better endure strong winds, heavy rain and hail, said Alain Bourque, executive director of Ouranos, a Quebec consortium on climate change.
"Cities that go through hurricanes or severe thunderstorms, we just have to do [it] like them," he told CTV News.
This philosophy can be applied to all sorts of weather extremes, from heatwaves to drought, to floods to fire.
"You just need to go in California to see how they use water differently than we do in Canada in Quebec. And that's a good example of adapting to less water availability because of climate change and increased drought frequency."
A March survey commissioned by the federal government found that only four per cent of Quebecers have taken steps to protect their home from flooding, compared to an average 11 per cent of Canadians.
These measures can be as simple as applying caulk around basement windows or using water-resistant building materials when renovating.
But Bourque says the bulk of these changes needs to happen on an institutional scale; this is where "the engineers, the land-use planners, the health specialists, the urban planners" come in.
In his eyes, redesigning our lives around the "unavoidable" nature of climate change is key.
"Depending on where you live, adaptation is going to be different because adaptation is very local or regional in nature," he said.
"We need to be able to shelter our communities with respect to those risks."
POWER PROBLEMS
One risk on the minds of many Quebecers is power outages.
As of Wednesday morning, tens of thousands of Quebec households are still without electricity, with the efforts to restore power hindered by mangled wires, fallen trees and debris.
Francis Labbé, a spokesperson for Hydro-Quebec, said the corporation is expected to come up with a climate change adaptation plan in the fall to cushion the impact of future weather events.
Labbé acknowledged that although such severe storms are relatively rare, they're expected to become more common as a result of climate change.
One approach that has been adopted in some countries, such as Sweden, is the installation of underground power lines.
But Labbé said it's unlikely this measure will be included in Hydro-Quebec's plans.
"It's way too expensive," he said, adding that Hydro-Quebec's distribution grid is long enough to wrap around the globe six times.
Burying all that underground would cost an estimated $100 billion and "would impact the electricity bill of our customers."
MORE FREQUENT STORMS
According to Bourque, the type of storm seen on Saturday is only going to become more frequent.
"There's going to be much more," he said.
"My immediate thought was, 'There we go again with another weather extreme,'" Bourque said. "[The storm is] very coherent with everything that is expected out of climate change science."
If global temperatures continue to rise, Bourque said, so will the frequency of devastating weather events like this one.
The solution?
A time machine.
"If we absolutely wanted to avoid the changes that are happening now, we should have executed the promises that we did in Rio in 1992. And in Kyoto in 1997, which we did not," he said.
Since changing the past isn't an option, Bourque said the next best solution is dramatically reducing greenhouse gases moving forward.
"So we are talking about completely changing our economy to make it completely disconnected with greenhouse gases and oil and gas," said Bourque, adding that society must "go towards renewable energy" and reduce its consumption overall.
It's a predicament made all the more urgent by a recent United Nations (UN) report, which found carbon emissions were at an all-time high between 2010 and 2019.
António Guterres, secretary-general for the UN, said the world is facing "unprecedented heatwaves, terrifying storms, widespread water shortages and the extinction of a million species of plants and animals" and urged immediate action from all governments.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Quebec nurse had to clean up after husband's death in Montreal hospital
On a night she should have been mourning, a nurse from Quebec's Laurentians region says she was forced to clean up her husband after he died at a hospital in Montreal.
Northern Ont. lawyer who abandoned clients in child protection cases disbarred
A North Bay, Ont., lawyer who abandoned 15 clients – many of them child protection cases – has lost his licence to practise law.
Bank of Canada officials split on when to start cutting interest rates
Members of the Bank of Canada's governing council were split on how long the central bank should wait before it starts cutting interest rates when they met earlier this month.
Maple Leafs fall to Bruins in Game 3, trail series 2-1
Brad Marchand scored twice, including the winner in the third period, and added an assist as the Boston Bruins downed the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-2 to take a 2-1 lead in their first-round playoff series Wednesday
Cuban government apologizes to Montreal-area family after delivering wrong body
Cuba's foreign affairs minister has apologized to a Montreal-area family after they were sent the wrong body following the death of a loved one.
'It was instant karma': Viral video captures failed theft attempt in Nanaimo, B.C.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
What is changing about Canada's capital gains tax and how does it impact me?
The federal government's proposed change to capital gains taxation is expected to increase taxes on investments and mainly affect wealthy Canadians and businesses. Here's what you need to know about the move.
New Indigenous loan guarantee program a 'really big deal,' Freeland says at Toronto conference
Canada's Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland was among the 1,700 delegates attending the two-day First Nations Major Projects Coalition (FNMPC) conference that concluded Tuesday in Toronto.
'Life was not fair to him': Daughter of N.B. man exonerated of murder remembers him as a kind soul
The daughter of a New Brunswick man recently exonerated from murder, is remembering her father as somebody who, despite a wrongful conviction, never became bitter or angry.