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Devastating floods in British Columbia are bringing back bad memories of 2021, when flooding killed tens of thousands of animals and required federal disaster assistance exceeding $1-billion. Residents are questioning how much has improved since then.
Now, let’s catch you up on other news.
Noteworthy reporting this week:
- Oil and gas: New report backs Canada’s ambition to be energy superpower
- Justice: B.C. to amend Indigenous rights act after court ruling on mineral claims
- Ocean life: Teaming up on salmon hunts, orcas and dolphins in B.C. have developed a strategy that really clicks
- Ecology: Why it’s important to mitigate the spread of invasive species
- Pipelines: Liberals vote against Tory pipeline motion, calling it cheap stunt
- Nuclear energy: American-owned consortium assumes control of Canada’s premier nuclear research facility
A deeper dive
A table and a bin are caught in a field after flooding in Abbotsford, B.C., last week.ETHAN CAIRNS/The Canadian Press
‘I can’t farm this way’
For this week’s deeper dive, a closer look at the damage and broken trust after flooding in Western Canada.
Flooding forced hundreds of people and countless livestock in British Columbia’s agricultural heartland to be displaced last week, and more rain is still expected.
For those in the Fraser Valley, the recent events stirred uncomfortable memories of the catastrophic flood of 2021, the province’s most costly natural disaster. Residents and farmers are demanding answers as to why more hasn’t been done to heed lessons from four years ago.
For example, similar to the 2021 disaster, water from the Nooksack River in Washington state poured into Abbotsford. This year, floodwaters from down south once again drove British Columbians from homes and farms.
Talk about the need for a two-country solution to cross-border flooding – which has repeatedly devastated Canadians – has been going on for decades. One Canadian engineering study showed that a $29-million Nooksack levee in Washington could prevent more than $500-million in Abbotsford area flood damage.
The city needs “to have our friends in Washington state wake up,” Abbotsford Mayor Ross Siemens said. “We cannot continue to take this water.”
It was a grim weekend for Matt Dykshoorn’s brother and father, whose chicken barns were submerged in floodwaters. The birds died, despite frantic sandbagging efforts.
Poultry farmer Corry Spitters lost 200,000 chickens to the 2021 deluge. In the aftermath, federal and provincial ministers visited one of his farms and promised to improve the situation.
“And nothing has been done,” he said.
Siemens shared similar frustrations. He said Abbotsford and neighbouring municipalities have identified an array of new infrastructure necessary to prevent a repeat of 2021. But funding requests for those projects have been largely ignored by higher levels of government.
In good news, flood waters began to recede on Friday, more major roads opened in the past two days and evacuation alerts were lifted for more than 1,000 properties over the weekend.
However, a second stormy weather system is expected to bring significant rainfall through the region today and has the potential to exacerbate flooding issues in already hard-hit areas.
Buildings on Jem Farms stand submerged after flooding near the Sumas border crossing in Abbotsford, B.C., last Thursday.ETHAN CAIRNS/The Canadian Press
What else you missed
- Will Toronto’s land use plans meet the moment?
Opinion and analysis
Africa has become the world’s dumping grounds
The practice of human dumping likely takes its inspiration from a phenomenon known as ‘waste (or plastic) colonialism.’
— Richard Poplak, Canadian journalist and filmmaker based in Johannesburg and Toronto
B.C. and Ottawa need to shift gears on EVs
B.C. and Ottawa can help risk-averse consumers make the switch by doing more to make EV ownership attractive. Distorting the market through limiting choice is the wrong strategy.
— The Editorial Board
Green Investing
Albertans at risk of paying oil sands reclamation costs, Auditor-General says
Albertans risk being on the hook for billions of dollars' worth of cleanup of the oil sands under current rules that govern security payments for the massive mining operations, according to a new report from the province’s Auditor-General.
The funds held through the Mine Financial Security Program amounted to just $1.8-billion as of September. Meanwhile there is an estimated reclamation liability of $51.9-billion, the Office of the Auditor-General found in a report released Thursday. That amount represents the potential cost to clean up mines at the ends of their lives.
Photo of the week
Ayen Deng Duot, right, and her family reinforce their Nile River island in Akuak, South Sudan, with vegetation and mud last month to prevent their home from being flooded.Florence Miettaux/The Associated Press
Guides and Explainers
- Want to learn to invest sustainably? We have a class for that: Green Investing 101 newsletter course for the climate-conscious investor. Not sure you need help? Take our quiz to challenge your knowledge.
- We’ve rounded up our reporters’ content to help you learn about what a carbon tax is and how Canada will change because of climate change.
- We have ways to make your travelling more sustainable and if you like to read, here are books to help the environmentalist in you grow, as well as a downloadable e-book of Micro Skills - Little Steps to Big Change.
Catch up on Globe Climate
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