Senate expenses climbed to $7.2 million in 2023, up nearly 30%
Senators in Canada claimed $7.2 million in expenses in 2023, a nearly 30 per cent increase over the previous year.
The damage sustained to Vancouver’s scenic seawall during a storm last week could be a sign of things to come as sea levels continue to rise due to climate change.
“We know that we are vulnerable,” Ian Stewart of the Vancouver Park Board told CTV National News. “We are looking at… long-term solutions.”
During a fierce Jan. 7 storm, high winds and extreme tides battered the popular Stanley Park Seawall, transforming sections into rubble. Littered with upturned and broken chunks of concrete and debris, much of it remains dangerous and off-limits to visitors, robbing the city of part of what is supposed to be the world’s longest uninterrupted waterfront path.
Experts say seaside cities like Vancouver are increasingly vulnerable as climate change causes ocean levels to rise.
“Our coastal infrastructure is designed assuming that the sea is stable,” Simon Fraser University earth sciences professor John Clague told CTV National News. “When you begin to elevate that surface, it begins to cause problems.”
Clague specializes in geological hazards like tsunamis, earthquakes and floods. While high water extremes in Vancouver used to be rare, Clague says the city can expect them to become more frequent and damaging in the future.
“As the climate warms, those water levels are going to rise, and they’re going to impact that coastal infrastructure,” he explained. Worldwide, hundreds of thousands of kilometres of coastline could be affected.
In 2021, the world’s oceans reached record warm temperatures for the sixth straight year. According to a report commissioned by the B.C. government, sea levels in parts of the province could increase by half a metre by 2050. While there are varying estimates as to how fast sea levels will rise, it is widely seen as inevitable, and coastal cities like Vancouver are being urged to prepare for potential impacts.
“It should be a bit of a wake-up call to people that this is kind of the new normal,” Clague said of the damage left by last week’s storm in B.C.
When it comes to the iconic Stanley Park Seawall, the Vancouver Park Board says plans are already underway to make it stronger and more resilient.
“We are exploring all and any solutions to the changing climate and sea-level rise,” manager of park development Ian Stewart said.
The Vancouver Park Board estimates it will still be weeks before the seawall is repaired and fully reopened to visitors.
Senators in Canada claimed $7.2 million in expenses in 2023, a nearly 30 per cent increase over the previous year.
Police say a baby and a pedestrian suffered non-life-threatening injuries after a vehicle struck a baby stroller and dragged it for two blocks before stopping in Squamish, B.C.
Former NDP leader Tom Mulcair says that what's happening now in a trash-littered federal park in Quebec is a perfect metaphor for how the Trudeau government runs things.
A group of demonstrators were kicked out of the legislature after a second NDP motion calling for unanimous consent to reverse a ban on the keffiyeh failed to pass.
The RCMP says it has uncovered a plot by two men in Montreal to sell Chinese drones and military equipment to Libya illegally.
The U.S. Justice Department announced a US$138.7 million settlement Tuesday with more than 100 people who accused the FBI of grossly mishandling allegations of sexual assault against Larry Nassar in 2015 and 2016, a critical time gap that allowed the sports doctor to continue to prey on victims before his arrest.
The Vancouver Canucks will be without all-star goalie Thatcher Demko when they face the Nashville Predators in Game 2 of their first-round playoff series.
A 35-year-old man wanted in connection with the murder of Toronto resident 29-year-old Sharmar Powell-Flowers nine months ago has topped the list of the BOLO program’s 25 most wanted fugitives across Canada, police announced Tuesday.
The Canadian Medical Association is asking the federal government to reconsider its proposed changes to capital gains taxation, arguing it will affect doctors' retirement savings.
The giant stone statues guarding the Lions Gate Bridge have been dressed in custom Vancouver Canucks jerseys as the NHL playoffs get underway.
A local Oilers fan is hoping to see his team cut through the postseason, so he can cut his hair.
A family from Laval, Que. is looking for answers... and their father's body. He died on vacation in Cuba and authorities sent someone else's body back to Canada.
A former educational assistant is calling attention to the rising violence in Alberta's classrooms.
The federal government says its plan to increase taxes on capital gains is aimed at wealthy Canadians to achieve “tax fairness.”
At 6'8" and 350 pounds, there is nothing typical about UBC offensive lineman Giovanni Manu, who was born in Tonga and went to high school in Pitt Meadows.
Kevin the cat has been reunited with his family after enduring a harrowing three-day ordeal while lost at Toronto Pearson International Airport earlier this week.
Molly Knight, a Grade 4 student in Nova Scotia, noticed her school library did not have many books on female athletes, so she started her own book drive in hopes of changing that.
Almost 7,000 bars of pure gold were stolen from Pearson International Airport exactly one year ago during an elaborate heist, but so far only a tiny fraction of that stolen loot has been found.