Climate-change costs are already taking an increasing bite out of Canada’s economic growth and the country is falling behind other nations when it comes to planning for them, says federally funded research.
“Some of these impacts we’ve already seen are going to continue into the future and grow,” said Ryan Ness of the Canadian Institute for Climate Choices. “But there’s going to be other ki nds of impacts that we haven’t even seen before.”
The institute was formed and is funded by Environment Canada as a source of independent advice and analysis on climatechange threats and possible ways to minimize them. This is its first report.
Using data from government sources as well as groups including the Insurance Bureau of Canada, it concludes weather-related-disaster costs are increasing dramatically. It says the number of such disasters had risen to 27 a year in 2016 from an average of eight annually in the early 1970s.
There were $14.5 billion in total costs from 2010 to ’19. The total for the four previous decades was $21 billion.
Those figures are adjusted for population growth and increasing land values, said institute economist Dave Sawyer.
“Sure, we’ve got more stuff, but we’re also being kicked harder,” Sawyer said.
That drain is starting to dent the economy. The report says disaster costs used to equal about one per cent of GDP growth. Over the past decade, that has climbed to between five and six per cent.
The biggest threats are still down the road, the report predicts.
Health costs can be expected to increase due to heat waves and increases in insect-borne illnesses such as Lyme disease. Wildfire smoke worsens lung problems and weather-related disasters of all kinds have mental-health impacts.
The report says business costs will emerge, too. People don’t work during disasters. During
the 2016 Fort McMurray fire, 40 per cent of Canada’s oil production was off-line for weeks. Economists have found labour productivity drops during times of extreme heat or cold by about 2.7 per cent.
Property vulnerable to disasters such as floods, fires or permafrost thaw will lose value, the report suggests, at a cumulative loss estimated by some of up to nearly one per cent of GDP by 2050.
Husky Energy to get $41.5M in federal aid
Funding meant to help company restart stalled N.L. offshore project
- The Hamilton Spectator
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- SARAH SMELLIE
ST. JOHN’S, N.L.— Husky Energy will receive $41.5 million in federal money to maintain jobs and move toward restarting its West White Rose offshore oil project in Newfoundland and Labrador, although officials admit a restart is not certain.
Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Andrew Furey made the funding announcement Thursday at Husky’s offices in downtown St. John’s. Furey said the investment ensures jobs for more than 300 people in the province for the next year.
“The project will provide employment for 169 people in this province in project management and engineering alone,” Furey told reporters.
The funding doesn’t come with a guarantee that Husky will restart its $2.2-billion West White Rose project, which would extend the life of its White Rose oilfield about 350 kilometres off the coast of St. John’s. A press release following Furey ’s announcement stresses the money will “protect the option of restarting the West White Rose Project in 2022, if conditions permit.”
Husky Energy announced in September it was halting construction on the project, which was largely being carried out in Marystown, on Newfoundland’s Burin Peninsula, and Argentia, on the Avalon Peninsula. The project is roughly 60 per cent complete, and construction employed about 1,000 people in those two towns, according to a company press release.
In October, Husky announced it was suspending construction for all of 2021 as the company reviewed it operations in the province.
“The (West White Rose) project is key to extending the life of the White Rose field. As we have said before, all options are on the table and accelerating abandonment remains a possibility,” Husky spokesperson Kim Guttormson said in an email at the time.
In September, the federal government announced it would provide $320 million, to be managed by the province, to help Newfoundland and Labrador’s offshore oil industry as the sector sputtered under plummeting oil prices and a global pandemic. In response, Furey assembled an oil and gas recovery task force whose goal was, in part, to decide how to parcel out that money.
“Its recommendations will help establish key priorities to maximize employment for Newfoundlanders and Labradorians, and support the recovery of our province’s oil and gas industry during this troubled time,” Furey told reporters Thursday.
The team has divided the federal cash into two streams, he said, with $288 million earmarked for offshore oil operators, and $32 million allotted to the service and supply sector.