Residents embrace in front of a fire-ravaged property after the Palisades Fire swept through in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, Jan. 8.Etienne Laurent/The Associated Press
The firestorms consuming parts of Los Angeles are shaping up as the most destructive fires in the history of the United States. And already, California Governor Gavin Newsom is pleading with residents to come back and rebuild, promising to ensure higher quality building standards to protect people and their homes next time around.
Canadians have heard it before – commitments to “build back better” after climate disasters that are growing in frequency, intensity and cost. Canada just experienced its most expensive year of disasters. What happened in L.A. could happen here.
Canada’s communities have settled in flood zones, they are built up next to forests. As the planet heats up, we need building codes that reflect the changing reality – and in some cases we need to rethink where we live.
There are communities that are adapting. Canmore is currently clearing adjacent forest lands to reduce wildfire risks in Alberta’s Bow River Valley, after watching last summer’s wildfire that destroyed a large portion of neighbouring Jasper.
But more often than not, climate adaptation moves slowly and the lessons learned from disasters disappear from memory before they are addressed.
A wildfire razed the town of Lytton on June 30, 2021, killing two. Then-B.C. premier John Horgan promised the province would help Lyttonites rebuild a new village that would be an example for North America of how to build a fire-smart community.
That didn’t happen. Council did pass a bylaw that would have required new buildings to be built under the FireSmartBC code, but it was scrapped before a single frame went up, because displaced residents found the cost of enhanced safety features prohibitive.
The Lytton fire occurred in similar circumstances as those in Los Angeles today: homes packed too closely together with too many ignition sources, surrounded by dry fuel and devoured by fire whipped by high winds. Firefighters didn’t stand a chance of stopping the flames.
The costliest disaster in Canadian history was the 2016 Horse River wildfire that consumed Fort McMurray. More than 80,000 people evacuated through a flaming corridor on the single highway leading out of the northern Alberta city. Last summer, residents were being evacuated again as wildfires circled the outskirts of town – a painful reminder to residents that they remain at risk, living on the edge of a great boreal forest.
It is not just wildfires. Flooding is Canada’s most common and costly climate-related disaster. According to Canada’s National Adaptation Strategy, 80 per cent of major cities are located wholly or partially in flood zones.
That strategy, tabled in 2023, sets out targets that include one to ensure that half of Canadians will have taken concrete actions to better prepare for and respond to climate change risks facing their households. The federal government itself wants to deliver “a measurable reduction of people in Canada impacted by acute and slow-onset climate-related hazards.” Ottawa can’t say how much has been spent, nor can it produce evidence of measurable progress.
Meanwhile, Canada aims to build millions of new homes in the next five years to address the housing shortage. It must find ways to do so without putting new neighbourhoods directly in the path of fire or floods. It must also deal with growing risks in established communities. Insured damage from severe weather events in Canada hit a record $8.5-billion last year across the country.
In Quebec, where flood-mapping has been made public, lenders are reluctant to offer mortgages for homes in at-risk locations. Banks and insurance companies see the risk of climate change, but few communities in Canada have been able to successfully manage retreat after they figure out where homes are in the line of fire or flood.
Governments, communities and individuals need to get ahead of climate change, which is moving faster than we are. Under the Paris Agreement signed in 2015, world leaders pledged to try to stop global temperatures from rising by more than 1.5 C above pre-industrial levels. Not enough was done: 2024 was the hottest year yet, as average annual temperature around the globe warmed beyond 1.5 C for first time.
The threshold has been crossed. We must not only manage risk, but we must also manage retreat.