Thanks for the question. That is a terrific point.
I think when it comes to funding for climate adaptation, regardless of the funding source, one of the recommendations FCM made in the national adaptation strategy was that we need to be prioritizing investment in communities that are most at risk. That's partly from an equity perspective, because it is often lower-income or marginalized or racialized communities that are at higher risk from climate change. It's also because of the cost-benefit analysis of reducing risk for those communities.
The comment about linking to population growth is related to climate change but is more related to the outdated fiscal framework that we have for municipalities. The country is growing. We had more population growth last year than we have since the 1950s. That's a good thing. I think we can all agree on that, but many communities of all sizes, not just the bigger cities, that are growing quickly don't have the financial resources to invest in infrastructure, to increase housing supply or to adapt to climate change.