Tag Archives: Ministry of Emergency Preparedness

Cost of Climate Change, Indigenous Nations History

Salvaging the sacred from climate disaster

Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The floodwaters rose swiftly and silently inside Nicole Norris’s family home and other residences of the Halalt First Nation on Vancouver Island when a storm unleashed a furious deluge of rain in November 2021. 

Her brother, asleep in the home’s ground-floor suite, awoke when his leg, hanging off the side of the bed, became submerged by overflow from the Chemainus River, said Norris, an Indigenous planning officer for the B.C. Ministry of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness. 

“Our home took on four feet of water in the basement. There was no sound to it,” said Norris, also known as Alag̱a̱mił. 

“Instantly, he yelled for my daughter and they were able to start pulling things from the basement.” 

Not everything of value escaped unscathed, said Norris, a regalia maker, weaver and cultural knowledge holder. 

Continue reading Salvaging the sacred from climate disaster →
Cost of Climate Change

Canada’s new climate adaptation plan puts up $1.6 billion to tackle wildfires, heatwaves, flood risk and more

By Natasha Bulowski, Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Canada’s much-anticipated roadmap to weather the impacts of climate change is out, and it includes $1.6 billion in new spending to fortify infrastructure, protect human health and predict future risks.

The country’s first National Adaptation Strategy lays out specific targets for its five focus areas: disaster resilience, health and well-being, nature and biodiversity, economy and workers and infrastructure.

Continue reading Canada’s new climate adaptation plan puts up $1.6 billion to tackle wildfires, heatwaves, flood risk and more →
Justice

Conservatives will vote against implementing Emergencies Act

By Michael Potestio, Kamloops This Week, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo Conservative MP Frank Caputo will vote against implementing the Emergencies Act to address weeks-long Freedom Convoy protests against COVID-19 vaccine mandates that have resulted in a vehicle-clogged downtown Ottawa and border blockades across the country.

“I will be opposing it,” Caputo told KTW, arguing implementing the act should be legislation of the last resort.

It is the stance interim Conservative Leader Candace Bergen has said her party is taking as Parliament on Thursday (Feb. 17) began debating the federal Liberal government’s temporary special measures, which were invoked Monday for the first time since the act was created in 1988 to replace the War Measures Act.

Continue reading Conservatives will vote against implementing Emergencies Act →
Cost of Climate Change

After B.C. flooding, billion-dollar questions for Canada

By John Woodside,  National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The cascading natural disasters in British Columbia have destroyed key pieces of infrastructure that experts say should trigger a nationwide risk assessment to prepare for Canada’s rapidly changing climate.

An atmospheric river dumped a month’s worth of rain on B.C., which when combined with melting snow and the mountains already scarred from a catastrophic wildfire season, led to landslides that destroyed segments of the Trans-Canada and Coquihalla highways.

Continue reading After B.C. flooding, billion-dollar questions for Canada →
Cost of Climate Change

Lethal mix of cascading climate impacts hammers B.C.

By John Woodside,  National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

​After a devastating wildfire season that reduced towns to ash and a heat dome that killed hundreds, climate breakdown is again threatening British Columbians, as torrential rain pummelled the province Monday, causing landslides and floods that destroyed key infrastructure and took at least one life.

Continue reading Lethal mix of cascading climate impacts hammers B.C. →