Environment Committee on Feb. 26th, 2026

[The Chair, Liberal, Angelo Iacono]

I call this meeting to order.

Welcome to meeting number 27 of the Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development.

This meeting is taking place in a hybrid format and is in public.

For those attending in person, please follow the health and safety guidelines, as per the cards on the table, to prevent audio or feedback incidents.

The committee is resuming its study of protecting Canadian residents from extreme weather events.

As witnesses representing the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, we have Louise Wallace Richmond, city councillor, Salmon Arm, British Columbia, by video conference; and we have Leslie Muñoz, director, advocacy.

From the town council of Parson's Pond, we have Mayor Blaine Payne, by video conference, and councillor Josephine Goosney, by video conference.

Good morning to you all.

You will have five minutes for your opening remarks. I will indicate when you have one minute left in your comments and responses and will kindly ask you to end your remarks.

Thank you.

We will start with the Federation of Canadian Municipalities.

You have five minutes for your opening statement.

[Leslie Muñoz, Director, Advocacy, Federation of Canadian Municipalities]

Hi, thank you.

I'm very excited to be here on behalf of FCM, and I appreciate that the committee is discussing this very important matter.

My name is Leslie Muñoz. Our main witness is our board member, Louise Wallace Richmond, from the city of Salmon Arm, B.C., who is the vice-chair of our environment committee.

I'll pass it over to Louise to speak on our behalf.

[Louise Wallace Richmond, Councillor, City of Salmon Arm, British Columbia, Representative, Federation of Canadian Municipalities]

Good morning, distinguished members of the committee.

The Federation of Canadian Municipalities, or FCM, represents over 92% of the Canadian population. Our members represent more than 2,000 municipalities of all sizes, from the largest urban centres to northern, rural and remote communities, as well as 20 provincial and territorial associations.

I'm going to make four points in my opening statement.

First, preparing our infrastructure now, rather than repairing later, is the most cost-effective way to avoid billions of dollars in damage.

Second, we must better support local emergency management as well as evacuees and the host communities.

Third, we must strengthen national coordination mechanisms to address capacity gaps.

Fourth, we must support post-disaster recovery so that we can build back better quickly, and that includes ensuring access to affordable insurance.

More severe floods and storms threaten Canadian households, businesses and communities. Pressure is ramping up on local government infrastructure and emergency services, and it's only going to get worse. Fourteen per cent of Canada's public infrastructure assets are in poor or very poor condition, with a $294-billion backlog in repairs needed, making communities more vulnerable to disruption, loss and danger.

Climate change already adds $9 billion per year to our infrastructure costs, and that could rise to $14 billion by 2050.

By acting now, we can reduce impacts and costs. By adapting our infrastructure today rather than repairing it later, we can save billions of dollars.

In its most recent study, the Climate Institute of Canada demonstrated that every dollar invested in preparing for climate risks can save nearly $5 in future expenses.

This is why FCM is calling on the federal government to immediately invest $2 billion in adaptation infrastructure, followed by $1 billion annually for the next 10 years, to protect communities and to reduce costs.

While climate adaptation projects are eligible under the new build communities strong fund, BCSF, they are not at the pace and scale that is necessary. This is why we continue to call for additional dedicated investment.

FCM is already a champion in this space. The green municipal fund, GMF, proactively supports municipalities to undertake climate risk assessment, adaptation plans and asset management resiliency. We know the GMF can be leveraged to further protect communities in the years to come.

Local emergency management needs support. Local firefighters are trained and equipped for structural fires, not for forest fires. With increased development in the interface, they are often called upon to do both. They face burnout, mental health and recruitment challenges. This is acute in rural, remote and northern communities, where services are volunteer-based and where training and equipment are limited.

As for evacuations, proactively identifying or building multi-purpose facilities and closing remaining gaps in cellular and broadband would ensure that evacuations support the basic needs of evacuees.

National coordination measures must be enhanced.

When climate disasters intensify, local capacities can quickly become overwhelmed. We all need to coordinate our efforts to prevent the damage from getting worse.

Establishing stronger coordination mechanisms at the federal level is vital to improve national standards, data systems and awareness of critical risks and best practices.

Finally, post-disaster recovery is emerging as one of the most significant and costly components. Municipalities rebuild critical infrastructure while responding to ongoing emergencies. The launch of the modernization of the disaster financial assistance arrangements, DFAA, is important, but we'll need clarity as we navigate new requirements going forward.

Lastly, let us support vulnerable households living in high-risk areas by implementing national insurance for those areas.

Municipalities' responsibilities are expanding at a pace that far exceeds our fiscal capacity and existing emergency framework. The FCM welcomes the opportunity to work with the Government of Canada.

[The Chair, Liberal, Angelo Iacono]

Thank you.

Our next witness is the mayor, Mr. Payne. The floor is yours for five minutes.

[Blaine Payne, Mayor, Town Council of Parson’s Pond]

Good afternoon, Mr. Chair and members of the committee.

My name is Blaine Payne. I'm the Mayor of Parson's Pond. With me today is Councillor Josephine Goosney.

We would like to thank you for the invitation to join your meeting today. I appreciate the opportunity to add a rural municipality's perspective to your committee study on protecting Canadian residents from extreme weather events. Parson's Pond is a small town in Newfoundland and Labrador, and we have been facing major erosion issues for decades. I would like to bring to the attention of your committee that our efforts to mitigate the threats have been completely unsuccessful.

Parson's Pond is a beautiful community, surrounded by mountains and oceans on the Northern Peninsula and filled with friendly people who all share the same fear: erosion. It is an ongoing issue happening along the majority of our coastline. With every storm, we watch our land washing away. You see the mud in the water from the erosion and watch land falling away. You watch the coastline narrowing away with every storm, getting closer to the houses along the entire length of our community, from the north side to the south. Even on dry summer days without waves and water washing it away, you can see the dry sand blowing.

Residents and locals have been watching this happen for years, and nothing has been done to prevent it from worsening. It is very noticeable for those of us living here. As a kid growing up, I remember seeing the town lighthouse having to be moved closer to the houses twice because the land was eroding and it was about to fall over the edge of the bank, and that was in the centre of the town.

On the north side is more vacant land, so it's going unnoticed by many, but it's still happening. We can see it happening. On the south side of town, at the south entry point of Parson's Pond, especially, it is really noticeable. It's getting closer to the Route 430 highway, which is the access point to all of the Northern Peninsula, so if the highway washes away, there will be no more access to the Northern Peninsula, making this issue extend outside our small community by threatening the entire coast.

We are all concerned about this issue, but we have not been able to address it with the current realities and limited resources of our small community. Resettlement is not an option. Nobody wants to resettle from Parson's Pond. We have a nice, safe community. We have local services, a volunteer fire brigade, the clinic and grocery stores. We have booming lobster and forestry industries. We have clean drinking water throughout the community and we have sewer services.

Parson's Pond is a well-established community, and we welcome growth, not resettlement. If the time comes when we have to resettle due to safety, the erosion would have to be fixed anyway, because “Pond” is in our name. Our pond runs from the ocean to the base of the mountains. We are surrounded by marshland, wetland and swamps. There is no other way to connect to the Northern Peninsula but where the road currently is. It's at the narrowest and shallowest water in the pond. You cannot bypass Parson's Pond as there is nowhere to move the road.

There is urgency to the growing concern, and if we can fix the issue today, we can prevent future erosion. In our view, this is the only option and it is the safest option. If we cannot address this issue, the entire Northern Peninsula will be cut off.

I have had friends from as far up as St. Anthony on the Northern Peninsula ask me about erosion happening here in Parson's Pond, because as they drive through, they see this happen. They notice it, and they understand the consequences if this issue doesn't get resolved.

The funding required is too big for the town to fix it itself, and all available funding has too big a requirement for our little town to qualify. We know this is serious. In the context of your study, it's important that the federal government understand the dynamics of our community.

Again, I would like to thank you for the opportunity to speak to the committee on behalf of the town about these ongoing erosion issues. I look forward to answering your questions.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Angelo Iacono]

Thank you very much, Mr. Mayor, for your remarks.

We're starting with Mrs. Anstey of the Conservative Party for six minutes, please.

[Carol Anstey, Conservative, Long Range Mountains, NL]

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you to the witnesses for coming here today.

I would like to direct my questions today towards a mayor in my riding, Mayor Payne.

Thank you for appearing. We're all just here having a conversation today about this important issue, so thank you for bringing it forward.

I want to give you more of an opportunity to explain the geography that you're dealing with in Parson's Pond. Could you paint a little picture for us about how much of your community is on the coastal part of the peninsula?

[Blaine Payne]

Our entire community is built on the coast. We're right on the oceanfront, so the entire distance of our community is really eroding.

[Carol Anstey, Conservative, Long Range Mountains, NL]

I think that's an important point. Do you see mitigation as the best path forward as opposed to having to respond after something drastic happens, like a disaster?

[Blaine Payne]

I don't really understand the question. I'm sorry.

[Carol Anstey, Conservative, Long Range Mountains, NL]

I apologize.

You talked about the impacts of erosion on the community, the roads and the lighthouse, and about infrastructure being damaged. As you're dealing with this ongoing issue in your community, what do you see as the best path forward in terms of the way this can be dealt with?

I'm asking you about mitigation efforts as opposed to dealing with this on the other side if there's an extreme weather event.

[Blaine Payne]

I think for the full length of town, we definitely need some armour stone. I guess the government would have to do their study, but I feel armour stone would be the best way to protect our land ahead of time, prevent any future erosion and make the town safe now. We are at a high elevation above water. If you look at a 100-year plan, if we prevent any future erosion so that we do not have to move houses or anything, we will still be safe because we're at a high elevation. If we fix the problem today, we won't have to worry tomorrow.

[Carol Anstey, Conservative, Long Range Mountains, NL]

How many people live in Parson's Pond?

[Blaine Payne]

At the last census, which was four years ago, it was 321. There is a new census being updated this year.

[Carol Anstey, Conservative, Long Range Mountains, NL]

What's your tax base when you're servicing a community with 321 people in it?

[Blaine Payne]

I'm not certain of our total income, because we do have some fully serviced lots here, which pay a little extra. We have some that only have water. It ranges from $800 to $1,200 per household.

[Carol Anstey, Conservative, Long Range Mountains, NL]

With that tax base, what are you able to do with those funds as a municipality?

[Blaine Payne]

We have to have some for emergencies. We've been doing pumphouse upgrades, and that's been costing us. We provide snow clearing to the community and garbage disposal that goes to a waste management site. We are trying to get more projects to extend our sewer throughout the community. Our town hall gives back to the community. We support our fire brigade.

[Carol Anstey, Conservative, Long Range Mountains, NL]

What I'm getting at is there are limited resources in terms of what you might have extra for.

You touched a little bit on resettlement, and this is a deeply emotional issue for the people in Newfoundland and Labrador. I wanted to give you an opportunity to speak about that for the benefit of the committee, so that they understand.

[Blaine Payne]

We definitely do not want to resettle. We have a safe and beautiful little community out here. The main highway runs right through our town, so there's no extra cost for the government to keep Parson's Pond as Parson's Pond. If you protect our land now, we'll be safe.

I worked at other spots that were remote. It was costing the government tons of money. You had to pay ferry services and transfer fuel to the island. In Parson's Pond, there's none of that. If you protect our land, that's all we're asking for—safety.

[Carol Anstey, Conservative, Long Range Mountains, NL]

Resettlement happened, historically, in Newfoundland and Labrador, and it left a scarring mark on a lot of people in the province. I think that's probably why you get that push-back from your residents a lot.

Thank you for being a community advocate. I know that mayors in these small communities don't get a pat on the back, sometimes. I want to say thank you for appearing and for passing along the concerns of your community.

[The Chair, Liberal, Angelo Iacono]

Thank you very much.

Mr. St-Pierre, the floor is yours for six minutes.

[Eric St-Pierre, Liberal, Honoré-Mercier, QC]

Thank you.

Ms. Muñoz, thanks for being here. I'm a big fan of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities. I did a lot of work in the past with your colleagues, Kate Fleming and Chris Boivin, from the green municipal fund. Carole Saab helped work on the low-carbon cities Canada initiative. I'm a really big fan of your work. Send my regards to the team.

I have a question for you about extreme weather events and the structural budgetary risks for municipalities. Can you speak about the repeated floods and what they mean, financially, for a lot of your members?

[Leslie Muñoz]

Definitely. I'll quickly speak to this, and then I'll turn it over to Louise to share more local colour and flavour about what's happening on the ground.

We did the studies: 14% of municipal infrastructure is in a state of critical disrepair, which creates massive risk when it comes to extreme weather events. The backlog—and this is an outdated number, but we're going to be updating it in a couple of months—is $296 billion across the country. That, matched with extreme weather events, create a huge amount of financial risk for municipalities and for local taxpayers. It's not just about that: It's also about quality of life, about businesses being able to do business and all those pieces.

We've also recently partnered with the Canadian Climate Institute and the Insurance Bureau of Canada to do a study on the cost of climate adaptation and its potential savings. There's real monetary value to investing in preparing communities for extreme weather to prevent further costs down the road. The cost escalation is just too high.

I'll turn it over to Louise to talk a bit more about that and to share the local flavour.

[Louise Wallace Richmond]

Thank you. I appreciate the question.

The region that I'm from, the southern interior of B.C., experienced a number of significant disasters in the last five years alone. I can tell you that, from the community level, we no longer talk about fire season. We talk about fire all year long because we know that a fire in the summer will lead to a washout in the fall. The cumulative effect of one disaster will last for an immeasurably long time.

Whether it's the highway being washed out in the summer during busy times or the smoke that prevents us from leaving, thus being landlocked in the southern interior, people live with this risk all the time. At Christmas parties, people will talk about whether or not the snowpack in the mountains is going to be enough to get us through the spring, and whether or not the high temperatures will make the snowpack melt faster, therefore creating a risk of flood, which creates risk of.... We have to change our focus to prevention because it really is, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”