Report at the Council of Canada Academies (CCA) on disaster resilience

Canada is susceptible to a wide range of severe weather events, from extremes of hot and cold, to tornadoes, floods, droughts, avalanches, landslides, winter storms, ice storms, and wildfires. In a changing climate, these events are becoming more common and severe, and they are increasingly likely to strike at the same time and place, exacerbating and compounding the hazardous consequences. 

As the human and economic costs of climate disasters continue to mount, Canada faces a choice. It can continue to respond to disasters as they unfold — with the intendant economic, social, and health harms — or it can proactively prepare for them, mitigating the worst of the damages or avoiding them altogether.

The cost of preventing and preparing for disasters is several times less than responding to and recovering from them. However, most governments persistently underinvest in risk reduction and later pay the price in terms of disaster response and recovery. 

According to the Expert Panel, decision makers need prompt access to better data on extreme weather events to understand and reduce risks. Funding, investment, and insurance programs and policies can also be adapted to build resilience. For example, actions could include dissuading homeowners from building or rebuilding on floodplains, lowering insurance premiums for households with backwater flood valves, and improving building codes and engineering practices to climate-proof buildings and infrastructure. Recognizing the value of Indigenous and Local Knowledge and actively engaging with Indigenous knowledge holders is also critical in the effective reduction of risk.

Building a Resilient Canada identifies choices that households, communities, businesses, and governments can make to reduce the impacts of extreme weather on Canada's people, communities, and economy in a changing climate. The report details the resources, funding programs, investment options, insurance offerings, and governance structures that can support effective decision-making and a more resilient Canada.

The DMRKC contributed to the study by giving insight in the European perspective. The Canadian panel of experts met with DRMKC representatives to discuss the challenges and opportunities for linking disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation in science and policy. We particularly highlighted Europe's active science-policy interface, which brings integrated data and knowledge into policy initiatives across sectors. Science is necessary to connect the dots.

Link to the report: https://cca-reports.ca/reports/disaster-resilience/