In late February, the government of British Columbia announced a new strategy incorporating climate change into province’s recovery plans – a move that some critics say doesn’t go far enough, according to The CBC.
Associate professor and head of the disaster and emergency management program at Victoria’s Royal Roads University Jean Slick told the CBC that the fact that governments are still allowing people to build on flood plains or in fire zones means that more must be done. “”What we really want to see going forward is that we take action to stop creating disaster risks,” she says.
The proposed budget puts $2.1 billion towards disaster recovery and planning for wildfires, floods and heat waves, according to Finance Minister Selina Robinson, who told The CBC that the three-year climate fund is being directed to disaster cleanup and rebuilding in southern B.C. communities hit by last November’s floods and mudslides. The budget also includes money for assisting First Nations emergency management efforts, as well as expanding flood plain mapping at the River Forecast Centre to provide more data on weather and areas that need to be expanded in terms of protection, said Environment Minister George Heyman. “It’s not enough to react,” he told The CBC. “We need to be able to predict. We need to be able to prepare and we need to be able to invest.”
Source:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/climate-change-recovery-1.6364426
