Alberta gets C+ grade in national flood readiness report

A new report looking at climate change and how well jurisdictions across Canada are prepared for future flooding says Alberta needs to do a lot better.

The University of Waterloo report graded all of Canada's provinces and Yukon in 12 key areas, using data gathered in surveys participated in byprovincial ministries, departments and agencies.

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The report gives Alberta a C-plus grade, with the average national score being a C-minus.

"Flooding is the big elephant in the room. Calgarians have experienced this twice now in 2013 and 2005, so I think it would be highly prudent to really address flooding aggressively going forward," says Dr. Blair Feltmate, head of the University of Waterloo's Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation, which wasfounded by a donation from Intact insurance.

"The floodplain maps in Alberta are totally out of date. It may turn out you're not building in harm's way today, but 25 years from now it could potentially be in a flood plain."

Alberta also needs to do better when it comes to helping businesses and homeowners protect their properties from being flooded, and with its emergency response when flooding occurs, Feltmate said.

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Adapting to changing weather shouldalso a priority for the provincial government, the report says.

"It's a huge concern and that's why we're moving forward on a several hundred million dollar project for the Springbank reservoir for example, to protect the city of Calgary," says Alberta's environment minister Shannon Phillips.

"That's one million people and one of the largest economies in the country. We saw what happened when we didn't have appropriate protections for Calgary," says Phillips, referring to the 2013 floods.

"We're prioritising the most important areas first, and so studies are underway right now along the Bow, Elbow, Sheep, Highwood, Athabasca, Clearwater and Peace rivers."

Phillips says as well as moving forward with prioritising areas for floodplain mapping, the province isalso rolling out a climate adaptation strategy in the coming months and will be taking part in a UN meeting on climate change later in November.