Meeting 27 · February 26, 2026 · 11:05–13:04 (1h 59m)
45-16 witnesses · 181 interventions · 13,395 words
This House of Commons committee meeting on the Environment and Sustainable Development studied protecting Canadian residents from extreme weather events. Witnesses included Leslie Muñoz and Louise Wallace Richmond from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM), Blaine Payne, Mayor of Parson’s Pond, Mathieu Boudreault, a professor at Université du Québec à Montréal, Gary Martin, an individual researcher, and Rebecca Trowell from the Red River Basin Commission.
Leslie Muñoz and Louise Wallace Richmond, representing the FCM, called for a $2 billion immediate federal investment in adaptation infrastructure, followed by $1 billion annually for a decade, arguing that every dollar spent on preparation saves nearly five dollars in future costs. They highlighted that 14% of municipal infrastructure is in poor condition, creating a $294-billion repair backlog, and stressed the need for better support for local emergency management, stronger national coordination, and post-disaster recovery including accessible insurance for high-risk households. They noted that the disaster mitigation and adaptation fund is being wound down and that the new build communities strong fund is not at the necessary pace or scale.
Blaine Payne, Mayor of Parson’s Pond, described severe coastal erosion threatening the town’s only highway, which is the sole access to the entire Northern Peninsula, and stated that resettlement is not an option due to geography and community will. He said that all available funding has requirements too large for his small town to qualify, and that the province has only monitored the erosion without taking protective action, leaving the community unable to address the issue with its limited resources.
Mathieu Boudreault, speaking as an individual, reported that insured losses from extreme weather have increased by 6% annually for 30 years, with 1% to 1.5% directly attributable to climate change, and warned that current adaptation investments are meagre. He recommended creating a Crown corporation to administer a provincial reinsurance program with risk-proportional premiums, supporting resilience certification for buildings, and ensuring that insurance price signals are not artificially capped, except temporarily for low-income households, to avoid encouraging risk-taking.
Gary Martin, as an individual, urged the committee to study Dutch Water Authorities as a model for watershed-based flood management, noting that Ontario’s conservation authorities, which operate similarly, had the lowest per capita disaster financial assistance payouts before their funding and authority were cut. He argued that the federal government should convene a Canada-wide strategy for climate adaptation and that watershed management organizations with a mandate to prevent development in flood zones could reduce risk, while also aligning with reconciliation efforts.
Rebecca Trowell, from the Red River Basin Commission, emphasized that protecting residents from both drought and flood requires long-term, basin-wide thinking and investment in natural infrastructure. She noted that cross-border coordination with the U.S. is challenging because studies often stop at the border, and that overland flooding is the biggest risk in the basin, with climate projections pointing to more variable precipitation and higher temperatures.
After the testimony, a motion was moved to invite the CEO of the Major Projects Office to appear quarterly for the duration of the Parliament. The motion was not adopted due to a lack of unanimous consent, as some members argued it was filed late and that quarterly appearances were unnecessary.
AI-generated summary — may contain errors; verify against the official evidence.
Leslie Muñoz
Director, Advocacy, Federation of Canadian Municipalities
Opening remarks
Hi, thank you. I'm very excited to be here on behalf of FCM, and I appreciate that the committee is discussing this very important matter. My name is Leslie Muñoz. Our main witness is our board member, Louise Wallace Richmond, from the city of Salmon Arm, B.C., who is the vice-chair of our environment committee. I'll pass it over to Louise to speak on our behalf.
Louise Wallace Richmond
Councillor, City of Salmon Arm, British Columbia, Representative, Federation of Canadian Municipalities
Opening remarks
Good morning, distinguished members of the committee. The Federation of Canadian Municipalities, or FCM, represents over 92% of the Canadian population. Our members represent more than 2,000 municipalities of all sizes, from the largest urban centres to northern, rural and remote communities, as well as 20 provincial and territorial associations. I'm going to make four points in my opening statement. First, preparing our infrastructure now, rather than repairing later, is the most cost-effective way to avoid billions of dollars in damage. Second, we must better support local emergency management as well as evacuees and the host communities. Third, we must strengthen national coordination mechanisms to address capacity gaps. Fourth, we must support post-disaster recovery so that we can build back better quickly, and that includes ensuring access to affordable insurance. More severe floods and storms threaten Canadian households, businesses and communities. Pressure is ramping up on local government infrastructure and emergency services, and it's only going to get worse. Fourteen per cent of Canada's public infrastructure assets are in poor or very poor condition, with a…
Blaine Payne
Mayor, Town Council of Parson’s Pond
Opening remarks
Good afternoon, Mr. Chair and members of the committee. My name is Blaine Payne. I'm the Mayor of Parson's Pond. With me today is Councillor Josephine Goosney. We would like to thank you for the invitation to join your meeting today. I appreciate the opportunity to add a rural municipality's perspective to your committee study on protecting Canadian residents from extreme weather events. Parson's Pond is a small town in Newfoundland and Labrador, and we have been facing major erosion issues for decades. I would like to bring to the attention of your committee that our efforts to mitigate the threats have been completely unsuccessful. Parson's Pond is a beautiful community, surrounded by mountains and oceans on the Northern Peninsula and filled with friendly people who all share the same fear: erosion. It is an ongoing issue happening along the majority of our coastline. With every storm, we watch our land washing away. You see the mud in the water from the erosion and watch land falling away. You watch the coastline narrowing away with every storm, getting closer to the houses along the entire length of our community, from the north side to the south. Even on dry summer days…
Mathieu Boudreault
Professor, Department of Mathematics, Université du Québec à Montréal, As an Individual
Opening remarks
Thank you very much. Good morning. I am speaking to you as a professor of actuarial science at the Université du Québec à Montréal, or UQAM, as the research chair in actuarial and climate sciences at UQAM, and as a full member of the Canadian Institute of Actuaries. I worked with the task force on flood insurance and relocation, and I participated in a research partnership with Public Safety Canada and the Insurance Bureau of Canada. Through the research chair, I work with three of the largest property and casualty insurers in the country. After a brief overview of the situation, I will discuss three important elements for ensuring the long-term viability of insurance programs for extreme weather events, and I will then propose a potential solution for the federal government based on international experience. According to the Insurance Bureau of Canada, insured losses have increased by about 6% every year for 30 years, which is well above the rate of inflation. That kind of increase rate isn't sustainable without affecting insurability. Canada isn't alone in facing significant cost increases. For example, in France, the home insurance tax that funds the natural disaster…
Gary Martin
As an Individual
Opening remarks
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you to the committee for inviting me here to contribute to this critical discussion. I will start by noting that on January 1, I concluded a five-year research position with a team working out of the Sprott School of Business at Carleton University that studied flood risk and the politics of housing development in Canada and abroad. I'm now semi-retired. The following opinions are my own. I watched some of the recordings from previous committee meetings. I will not repeat scary data, nor will I repeat the demands for the federal government to fund and convene a Canada-wide strategy for adaptation to climate change. I've chosen to talk instead about watershed management for flood resilience in Canada and the Netherlands. I hope, and I'm sure you do too, that I'm not repeating what others have presented to the committee. In recent years, I have spoken about flooding and urban development with dozens of Canadian and Dutch government and housing industry officials. Following from that research, I invite the committee to look closely at Dutch Water Authorities, an 800-year-old institution with elected boards that coordinate flood resilience, watershed by…
Rebecca Trowell
North Basin Manager, Red River Basin Commission
Opening remarks
Thank you. I'm Rebecca Trowell. I am the north basin manager for the Red River Basin Commission, RRBC. I manage our Winnipeg, Manitoba, office under our executive director, Ted Preister, who works out of our Fargo, North Dakota, office. I've been with the RRBC for five years and have worked with many amazing, dedicated organizations on shared issues. The Red River Basin Commission is a charitable, not-for-profit organization that facilitates co-operation and water management across jurisdictions. Our role is to bring governments, technical experts and stakeholders together to identify, develop and implement solutions to cross-boundary water issues. The RRBC is led by 44 directors representing the diversity of this multi-jurisdictional basin. It is comprised of local, state, provincial and first nations government representation; the environmental community; and members at large. We have offices in both Fargo, North Dakota, and Winnipeg, Manitoba. The Red River basin is a unique and highly interconnected region. Protecting its residents from extreme weather events is one of the central priorities of the Red River Basin Commission. Our natural resource framework plan is a tool…