Canada’s largest property and casualty insurance company is teaming up with the University of Waterloo to re-pave the way for climate change.
Researchers from the university are rolling out projects in 20 locations across Canada, including the Greater Toronto Area, designed to protect homes, businesses, and infrastructure, homes from the devastating flooding that can result from sudden, heavy downpours.
The initiatives, backed by Intact Financial Corp., include planting trees and replacing concrete and asphalt surfaces with vegetation and permeable surfaces that absorb water.
Researchers describe them as simple, relatively inexpensive steps that could prevent billions of dollars in flood damages.
“Climate change has happened, is happening and will continue to happen. So what we have to do is learn to adapt to that changing condition. Everyday we don’t adapt, quite frankly, is a day that we don’t have,” said Blair Feltmate, chair of the Climate Change Adaptation Project.
The project has received a total of $1.5 million from the Intact Foundation, the insurer’s charity investment arm.
“The insurance industry is very much at the forefront of climate change,” said Giles Gratton, vice president, corporate communications for Intact Financial.
“It’s not a problem for the industry itself. It’s a problem for society at large and everybody has a role to play. There is a lot that can be done there if we want to better adapt to climate change.”
Calgary, Mississauga, Peterborough, Kingston, and Ottawa will see some of their asphalt torn up and replaced with porous brick and gravel this summer to help mitigate the flash flooding that frequently follows extreme rainfall.
Modern cities are ever more sheathed in concrete and pavement, sealing off the absorbent ground and leaving heavy rain with nowhere to go — except basements, subway tunnels and underground corridors.
Last year, Calgary and Toronto homeowners and businesses were hit with severe flooding that was aggravated by sealed topsoil that could not absorb the sudden influx of water, costing billions in damages.
Other projects include the construction of so-called bio-swales — which work as temporary holding tanks for excessive rainfall — to restoring urban wetlands, to carrying out home audits in Calgary so owners can flood-proof their properties.
In Brampton, the concrete lining around Spring Creek will be removed and replaced with natural vegetation. Two bio-swales will be created in Vaughan and Mississauga.
The price tag for the 20 projects is about $700,000 in direct funding from Intact, including about $75,000 for the depaving projects, which will remove at least 250 square meters of pavement.
“It’s not just philanthropy. The more we can work to de-risk the system, the better it is for everybody, homeowners, insurance companies, mortgage lenders and municipalities,” said Feltmate, an associate professor in the environment department. “There’s no downside to it.”
Researchers will spend the next three years installing the projects, gauging their effectiveness and assessing whether they should be adopted more generally.
“We already know the return on investment for these types of initiatives is huge. It’s ‘This $100,000 project may very well have stopped $3 million to $4 million of damage,’” he said.
“There is the financial return on investment but also the avoidance of the social stress associated with flooding. Whether you have insurance coverage or not, it’s a god awful thing to have happen in your house.”
Sewage back-up insurance is available in Canada, but not insurance for so-called overland flooding by which water enters basements through windows.
Feltmate says communities are becoming more vulnerable as aging storm-sewer infrastructure is less and less able to handle torrential downpours linked to climate change.
The Insurance Bureau of Canada says claims related to catastrophic weather events have surpassed $1 billion in every year since 2009. Flooding and storms in Toronto and Calgary last year cost about $3.2 billion in claims by property owners.
