Environment Committee on Feb. 3rd, 2026

[Kiera Taylor]

It is definitely a contradiction within their business models. In 2023, the top seven Canadian P and C companies, or their parent companies, invested over $19.5 billion in fossil fuels.

Fairfax Financial, a Canadian-headquartered global insurer, is the third-largest insurer of fossil fuels globally. It is investing in and funding the causes of the need for increased adaptation and contributing to the pressure that the industry is facing because of extreme weather.

[Patrick Bonin, Bloc, Repentigny, QC]

Thank you.

Mr. Bourque, thank you for being here, and congratulations to you and Ouranos for all your leadership and pioneering work in Canada.

Could you tell me a little bit about the Build Canada Homes program that was rolled out recently?

For example, what criteria should be met to receive federal funding for new buildings or renovation projects?

Should climate resilience and adaptation criteria be imposed before granting infrastructure funding?

[Alain Bourque]

Of course, each program has its own realities, and they must be studied before making recommendations. Certainly, overall, for this type of program and investments of this magnitude, we must ensure that criteria are imposed to guarantee the longevity of investments and effective management of the risk of extreme weather events related to what's being done.

We must remember that Canada is a large country that is complicated, in that some regions are at risk of coastal storms, while others are at risk of wildfires, river overflows or urban flooding. There's a certain challenge there in connecting with regional risk characteristics.

Clear criteria must be established, and they may reflect a certain obligation to fully understand the risks prior to investing, for example. I think that's an opportunity to be seized. It's something that needs to be done. In Quebec, municipalities are currently developing climate plans that include climate change reduction and adaptation as well as mitigation of its effects.

We were just talking earlier about funding for these initiatives. Those municipalities are currently able to develop climate plans because they've received $500 million from the Quebec government to do it. That $500 million comes from the carbon market with California, which generates revenue for Quebec that can be reinvested in this type of initiative.

Once municipalities have risk assessment and analysis processes in place, it will certainly be easier to implement the program. It will also be possible to move forward and build safe housing.

[Patrick Bonin, Bloc, Repentigny, QC]

Do you feel that the federal government is currently investing enough in climate change adaptation to meet needs?

[Alain Bourque]

It's clearly not enough. In Canada, the adaptation community was very pleased when the national adaptation strategy was released. It was the first time the country had adopted a national strategy.

Unfortunately, the investments did not really follow. Clearly, investments must be increased if Canada is to be strategically capable of coping with the effects of climate change and extreme weather events in the future.

[The Chair, Liberal, Angelo Iacono]

Thank you, Mr. Bourque.

Thank you, Mr. Bonin.

Mr. Bexte, the floor is yours for five minutes.

[David Bexte, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you to the witnesses, Ms. Taylor and Mr. Bourque.

I have a number of questions here. I'm really impressed with your testimony and I thank you very much for being here. I found it quite interesting.

Could you tell me what country has the largest emissions in the world? You can speculate.

[Alain Bourque]

It would be China or the U.S., probably.

[David Bexte, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

I thought it was China, but I don't have any data in front of me.

Ms. Taylor, discussing your model for cost recovery from polluters, you're suggesting we pursue the emitters. Wouldn't it be prudent to pursue the largest emitter in the world for cost recovery?

[Kiera Taylor]

Yes. As I mentioned earlier, there are many different emitters that could be targeted for cost recovery.

[David Bexte, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

Thanks. It would be interesting that we would want to sue China for this.

Back to Mr. Bourque, I have a question about your model and updated effects. You said that renewal of flood models is important, and I couldn't agree more. I wonder if you differentiated at all between weather effects and physical effects like changes in infrastructure, new roads, new bridges, building up areas, paving areas versus natural areas and how that changes over time, and the urban encroachment on the rural landscape. Can you quantify the difference between the two?

[Alain Bourque]

That's a very good question, but it could be a long answer. I'll try to be as short as possible.

I think the flood mapping that we have done with the Quebec government is really along rivers. It's much easier to do, and it's not around urban areas because, in urban areas, it's obvious that infrastructure like pavement, etc. is going to completely change the risk of flood. When doing it in rivers, the hydrological models try to handle the watershed and the way that the water streams around the watershed. We have done some studies to see the influence of modifying the watershed. Now, this usually has an impact on a much longer term. I think the 10-year rule is a good rule because, in that sense, you can also introduce modification to the watershed and to the surface to see if there's any influence.

[David Bexte, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

That's interesting. I was thinking things like how new bridge abutments kind of act as a choke on a river. It would back up in front of that.

You said something earlier that I found interesting, and I wonder if you could expand on your comments on private-public insurance options. You suggested that they were dangerous. Could you expand on that? What are the unintended consequences that we might face by going through a model like that?

[Alain Bourque]

I won't say much more, because I'm not an expert in this. By the way, that's the model of Ouranos: we have our own research capacity, but we always collaborate with other university researchers in different fields. For example, at UQAM, there's Mathieu Boudreault, who is a specialist in insurance. He works all the time with Desjardins and Intact, etc. We work with them, but he would be a much better person to exactly—

[David Bexte, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

You're an expert in the field, maybe not specifically in insurance, but from your perspective, what are some of the dangers?

[Alain Bourque]

Well, some of the danger is that if, for example, regulations try to help too many people and try to enter the market and limit markets, then you can have unintended consequence of seeing the cost of coverage for other people skyrocketing and making it inaccessible, etc.

My point is to say that this is not a simple thing to do. You have to think about it and look at all of the unintended consequences that you may generate by trying to have, let's say, a bigger role with the public sector versus a bigger role in the private sector, etc. There are various models. For example, we've seen in Florida and some other states that people either cannot be insured or the cost is just skyrocketing, and I think that we don't want this in Canada.

[David Bexte, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Angelo Iacono]

Mr. Grant, the floor is yours for five minutes.

[Wade Grant, Liberal, Vancouver Quadra, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Ms. Taylor, I'll start with you, and I'll talk about the report that you agreed with my colleague to provide to us at this committee here. You mentioned in that report possible legislation for cost recovery similar to tobacco and opioids. Can you elaborate on this a little bit more?

[Kiera Taylor]

Tobacco cost recovery was started by individual class actions in Quebec brought by victims of tobacco-related diseases. Then the provinces stepped in with lawsuits of their own. B.C. was the first. When the legal precedent was set that cost recovery could happen with tobacco companies, B.C. first stepped in with legislation that recovered the costs from tobacco companies, specifically targeting the costs the B.C. government was burdened with for its health care spend.

We're seeing this as well, now, in New York and Vermont, specifically for climate damages. They are basing the contributions of the cost on historical emissions. Based on those, the emitters will pay into the fund, which is then paid out. The funds will be used for adaptation and resilience measures. That hasn't happened yet. It's in the early stages in these states, so we still have to see how it actually plays out.

[Wade Grant, Liberal, Vancouver Quadra, BC]

Thanks, Ms. Taylor.

Monsieur Bourque, what are some of the most critical actions governments could take to help Canada be more resilient and better adapted to the reality of climate risks as we move forward?

[Alain Bourque]

Where should we prioritize? Is that your question?

[Wade Grant, Liberal, Vancouver Quadra, BC]

Yes. What actions can government prioritize as we move forward?

[Alain Bourque]

One of the key actions is to invest, obviously, but invest in a way that mobilizes the actors that have a significant role to play, in order to reduce risks.

Now, that being said, I just told you that everyone has a role to play, so there's a bit of a challenge there. You have to create an ecosystem that is transforming the way we adapted to the past climate. By the way, we have done this before. We adapted to the climate variability we had historically. We've done very well in Canada on that front.

Now, the new reality is that there's a new climate coming, so we need to review this. Especially at the federal level, there's a leadership role to advance the mobilization of all the actors that need to advance on this in turn, and to do this with provincial partners, municipal partners, indigenous communities, etc. They all, obviously, have a role in adapting to a new climate. That's one of the things.

I still think there's a need for research, more data, applied and specific cost-benefit analyses, etc. There are many things to do, but the question of using funding to mobilize actors to fully take responsibility for adapting to a new climate is key.

[Wade Grant, Liberal, Vancouver Quadra, BC]

Speaking of the world we're in now, of course, we all hear about artificial intelligence and things of that nature. I understand that it can be applied to help climate change adaptation.

Do you agree with that? If so, what are the ways that it can be?