Since the beginning of the election campaign, environmental issues have been virtually absent from the debate. Yet climate change continues to put buildings, infrastructure and municipalities to the test. In late August, the Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC) urged Quebec’s political parties to make adaptation to natural disasters and extreme weather events a priority.
To that end, the organization is proposing three measures, beginning with increased financial support for property owners. The funding should be used to make buildings more resilient to weather-related losses, including through “the installation of backwater valves, improved property drainage and the implementation of flood-protection measures.”
The IBC also wants Quebec’s next government to provide more support to municipalities so they can adapt public infrastructure to the foreseeable effects of climate change.
Finally, the IBC is calling for stronger land-use planning controls, including limits on new construction in risk-prone areas.
“It was important for us to put these three proposals forward even before the election campaign began,” says Laurent Fafard, IBC vice-president for Quebec. “Our objective was to put the issue on the agenda and have its importance recognized so that we can work on it with the next government.”
“Our requests are very broad,” he acknowledges. “For us, climate resilience is a collective issue that needs to become a society-wide undertaking.”
Measures slow to materialize
Philippe Gachon, executive director of the Réseau Inondations InterSectoriel du Québec (RIISQ), notes that the IBC’s demands are nothing new, but are becoming increasingly necessary considering the weather hazards caused by climate change. Gachon is also a professor in the Department of Geography at the Université du Québec à Montréal and a researcher at the Centre pour l'étude et la simulation du climat à l'échelle régionale at the same university.
“Financial support for property owners should be something that can be implemented quickly,” the expert argues. “It is becoming urgent in a context where, in addition to river flooding, we are seeing more and more pluvial flooding.”
Gachon adds that municipalities are still waiting to see what will come of the Plan de protection du territoire face aux inondations (PPTFI), implemented by the provincial government in March 2020 and extended until 2028.
“This plan is active, but what happened to the money and the strategy for taking action? Everyone is asking the question,” says the researcher, who sat on the committee that led to the program. “Will the next government follow through on what was promised?”
More importantly, will the program keep up with climate change and its impacts, which are evolving more quickly than anticipated? he asks.
Finally, Philippe Gachon agrees with the IBC on the need for stronger land-use planning controls. “We need to think about the future and plan over the longer term, whereas the various ministries are currently more focused on reacting in the short term. As a result, land-use planning is done more in silos because the focus is primarily on responding to emergencies,” he says.
Better information to support adaptation
In turn, Allison Reynaud, managing director, climate resilience for Quebec at the Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation, says the absence of environmental issues from the election campaign is “detrimental.”
“A great many Quebecers are affected by extreme climate events,” she notes. “As a society, we need to talk about their effects on our infrastructure, public finances and people’s lives.”
According to Reynaud, the IBC’s demands are not new, but they are fully aligned with the province’s actual needs. “We need to equip property owners and municipalities because they are on the front lines,” she says. “Land-use planning is a key part of adapting to climate change.”
Reynaud also believes future building standards need to foster this resilience.
In addition to the IBC’s requests, she says the public needs better information. “We are still waiting for the flood-zone maps that were announced earlier this year,” she says. “People need access to information and options in the event of a climate event: what to do, what the best practices are and what support measures are available.”
What the parties are proposing
The Insurance Portal reviewed the commitments made public by Quebec’s five main political parties to determine their intentions regarding climate change and community resilience. At the time of publication, only the Parti conservateur du Québec (PCQ) and Québec solidaire (QS) had released their election platforms.
Infrastructure maintenance
Équipe Christine Fréchette – Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) is proposing $180 billion under the Plan québécois des infrastructures (PQI), three-quarters of which would be allocated to maintaining and repairing existing infrastructure.
The Parti liberal du Québec (PLQ), for its part, is committing to devote three-quarters of the funding under the PQI to asset maintenance, with the goal of having 80 per cent of public infrastructure deemed to be in satisfactory condition. It would increase the PQI to $195 billion for the period from 2027 to 2037.
With this in mind, a Liberal government would increase the share of investments allocated to municipalities for infrastructure maintenance from 4.4 per cent to 8 per cent. Municipalities would also be required to plan, over a 20-year horizon, the amounts to be invested to keep their assets in good condition. However, no specific commitment has been made regarding climate change adaptation or mitigation.
The Parti Québécois (PQ) would also focus on maintaining and modernizing existing infrastructure before undertaking more new projects.
The PCQ would also prioritize existing infrastructure. Éric Duhaime’s team is committing to increase maintenance investments from 65 per cent to 75 per cent, or even 80 per cent, for as long as the asset maintenance deficit remains high. It currently stands at $40 billion. The party also wants to limit new projects to “infrastructure with a high economic impact.”
For the IBC, this presents an opportunity to make this infrastructure more resilient to climate hazards. “It’s a reflex we need to develop as a society,” Fafard says. “When we have major infrastructure projects, we need to ask ourselves how we can adapt them.”
Allison Reynaud agrees. “With these projects, the next government could integrate a climate change adaptation approach to make infrastructure more resistant to future extreme climate events, which would extend its lifespan,” she says.
Few specific commitments on adaptation
The PQ promises to “systematically” take climate change and its consequences into account in major government decisions, including public spending and infrastructure planning. “The Parti Québécois will not make the environment the responsibility of a single ministry. The entire government apparatus will be mobilized to help sustainably improve the quality of life of Quebecers,” reads the party’s environmental plan, released in late August.
For its part, a Québec solidaire government would also provide financial support to municipalities and regional initiatives aimed at adapting communities to climate-related risks.
PCQ wants to slim down government
The term “climate change” does not appear in the PCQ’s platform. As party leader Éric Duhaime has repeatedly stated, the party plans to reduce the size of government and government spending. Its platform states that the party plans to review numerous government programs, including the Green Fund, withdraw Quebec from the carbon market, and require that any new initiative be funded by eliminating another measure or making equivalent spending cuts.
The PCQ also plans to reduce municipalities’ dependence on government grants. According to the party, the welfare-state model “forces municipalities, regional county municipalities and local organizations to spend too much time filling out forms, waiting for approvals and complying with programs decided far from the communities they affect.” While it promises to put an end to “the proliferation of one-size-fits-all programs,” the party does not specify whether it would maintain the current level of provincial funding for municipalities.
The Insurance Portal contacted Quebec’s five main political parties by email to ask about their intentions regarding climate resilience and whether the issue would be included in their election platforms. Only the PLQ acknowledged receipt of our request and had not responded at the time of publication.
The IBC says it is in contact with the main political parties and is waiting to see which of them will take its requests into account during the election campaign. Regardless of which party forms the next government, the organization intends to work with it to implement the measures it is seeking.
