Quebec nurse had to clean up after husband's death in Montreal hospital
On a night she should have been mourning, a nurse from Quebec's Laurentians region says she was forced to clean up her husband after he died at a hospital in Montreal.
Heavy rainfall and the resultant flooding in British Columbia and the East Coast have caused serious damage in recent weeks, but a new report suggests rising sea levels due to climate change pose a much greater flood risk for Canadians -- and little has been done to mitigate it.
The report, published on Thursday, found that nearly 4.8 million Canadians live within 10 kilometres of the eastern or western coastline, and are thus “likely to be greatly affected” by climate-change-induced flooding, either through rising sea levels, extreme weather events or changing tides.
“We can no longer manage coastal risks by endlessly fighting against natural processes,” Joanna Eyquem, managing director of Climate-Resilient Infrastructure at the Intact Centre and the reports author, said in a news release. “There are real win-win opportunities to work with nature in the long-term, with multiple benefits for the community and beyond.”
To help protect communities from this kind of flooding, the report suggests two protection methods, to be used in tandem: grey infrastructure, meaning sea walls and storm surge barriers, and natural-based solutions, such as dune and wetland restoration.
“As this year’s devastating floods in B.C. have shown, we are still not doing enough to defend our communities from the extreme impacts of climate change,” Chantal Guay, CEO of the Standards Council of Canada, said in the release. “In this new normal, all adaptation solutions -- including those that harness the power of nature -- need to be on the table.”
The report also profiled several coastal flooding mitigation measures that worked, including the development of sand dunes in the Netherlands and the hard coastal defences of the United Kingdom. Additionally, some projects have not succeeded, including seven-metre tall seawalls in Japan that did help protect the country from a storm surge, but did not help with coastal erosion.
As for Canada, the report indicates that the country “does not yet have a strategic planning framework or standard classification of approaches for coastal risk management.”
To properly build and maintain future flood mitigation measures, the report recommends Canada develop a set of national standards to support a consistent evaluation of nature-based solutions compared to infrastructure solutions, develop national monitoring standards for these solutions and to build the capacity to fund nature-based projects in the private sector.
The report from the University of Waterloo was produced as partof a partnership between the Standards Council of Canada, National Research Council Canada and Intact Financial.
On a night she should have been mourning, a nurse from Quebec's Laurentians region says she was forced to clean up her husband after he died at a hospital in Montreal.
A North Bay, Ont., lawyer who abandoned 15 clients – many of them child protection cases – has lost his licence to practise law.
Members of the Bank of Canada's governing council were split on how long the central bank should wait before it starts cutting interest rates when they met earlier this month.
Brad Marchand scored twice, including the winner in the third period, and added an assist as the Boston Bruins downed the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-2 to take a 2-1 lead in their first-round playoff series Wednesday
Cuba's foreign affairs minister has apologized to a Montreal-area family after they were sent the wrong body following the death of a loved one.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
The federal government's proposed change to capital gains taxation is expected to increase taxes on investments and mainly affect wealthy Canadians and businesses. Here's what you need to know about the move.
Canada's Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland was among the 1,700 delegates attending the two-day First Nations Major Projects Coalition (FNMPC) conference that concluded Tuesday in Toronto.
The daughter of a New Brunswick man recently exonerated from murder, is remembering her father as somebody who, despite a wrongful conviction, never became bitter or angry.
A property tax bill is perplexing a small townhouse community in Fergus, Ont.
When identical twin sisters Kim and Michelle Krezonoski were invited to compete against some of the world’s most elite female runners at last week’s Boston Marathon, they were in disbelief.
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.