Great. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Good day, everyone.
I'm very pleased to be here with you—in person, for a change, which is nice. I want to recognize that we're in the city of Ottawa and on the unceded, unsurrendered territory of the Anishinabe Algonquin nation.
FCM is the national voice of local governments. We represent over 2,100 communities from coast to coast to coast. Climate adaptation is a critical priority for every single one of those communities, so I want to start by thanking the committee for making this topic a priority of your current study and inviting FCM to present to you today.
We all know that, in the past few years, Canadians have experienced record-breaking heat waves, flooding, hurricanes and wildfires that have wreaked havoc on homes, businesses and communities. We've already heard directly from a mayor about the very real and human impact that climate change is having today in Canada.
Canadians rely on municipal infrastructure every day, yet, according to Statistics Canada's core public infrastructure survey, 14% of municipal waste water and transportation infrastructure is currently in poor or very poor condition and requires immediate repair or replacement. FCM has estimated that the cost of replacing or rehabilitating just these assets alone is in the range of $175 billion. That figure doesn't factor in the chronic impact that climate change is having on existing municipal infrastructure, nor the infrastructure that we need to build to protect Canadians from disaster events like floods.
With municipalities collecting less than nine cents of every tax dollar paid by Canadians, there's a mismatch between the impact of climate change on municipal infrastructure and the revenue tools that municipalities have to tackle the issue. Climate change is just one reason why municipalities urgently need a new fiscal framework that better aligns revenue with population growth and the infrastructure and services that Canadian's expect in the 21st century.
FCM welcomed the national adaptation strategy that was released last fall. This new framework signalled meaningful progress toward a whole-of-Canada approach to climate resilience. FCM advanced four priorities in the lead-up to the national adaptation strategy. The first was to invest in climate data and local and regional risk and vulnerability assessments. The second was to integrate climate risks into public sector decision-making. The third was to build effective collaboration in climate governance. The fourth was to scale up investment in resilient public infrastructure and nature-based solutions. I'm pleased to say that the NAS makes important progress on the first three of these priorities. However, we are still a long way away from the level of investment that is needed to ensure climate-resilient public infrastructure.
The national adaptation strategy also included exciting new investment in FCM's green municipal fund to support community-based climate adaptation initiatives. Broadly, this programming will support the completion of local climate risk and vulnerability assessments and the integration of climate risk into municipal infrastructure and operations, all with an aim to help municipalities better understand, mitigate and respond to local climate risks. In concrete terms, we expect that the new program will support 1,400 community-based climate adaptation initiatives by 2031. Through this programming, our green municipal fund is also looking to help municipalities assess the potential for private sector participation in adaptation financing, which is a new area.
The national adaptation strategy did include an increase to the disaster mitigation and adaptation fund, which was already mentioned today. That funding of $489 million was described in the strategy as a down payment on the larger-scale funding that the federal government acknowledged is required to truly meet the challenge posed by climate change.
In 2020 FCM partnered with the Insurance Bureau of Canada to put a number on the level of investment required to adequately protect communities. According to the report's findings, avoiding the worst impacts at the municipal level will cost an estimated $5.3 billion per year, or the equivalent of 0.26% of Canada's total GDP. To address this gap, FCM has been calling for an immediate top-up of $2 billion and a long-term investment of $1 billion annually for the next 10 years in the disaster mitigation and adaptation fund.
Municipalities were disappointed that climate adaptation was not a priority in budget 2023. We continue to call for increased funding through the disaster mitigation adaptation fund. Adapting to climate change is expensive, but the returns are impressive. Every dollar we invest can save as much as $13 to $15 in future costs. I think we can all agree that it is in our collective interest to invest up front to prevent and mitigate disasters rather than pay for the cost of cleanup and recovery in the wake of a disaster.
Thank you.