Charlottetown offers flood protection rebates as municipalities brace for climate change
The City of Charlottetown is offering financial help to residents looking to protect their homes from flooding.
It was one of 10 municipal governments across Canada to receive a climate resiliency grant in 2022 from the Intact Foundation, which is connected to Intact Public Entities, a large insurance company that works with municipalities.
"The issue of flooding has been something that we've been aware of for certain communities across Charlottetown," said Alistair Ozon, the city's water co-ordinator..
"It's only going to become more of a common risk as climate change continues to increase the amount of severe weather events, storm surges and sea-level rise."
Ozon said that in an earlier pilot project, he and a few colleagues received special training from Waterloo University to perform an 80-point assessment on homes in a flood-prone area of the city.
They reviewed "the kind of landscaping, the basement, all the different factors that can contribute to flooding as well as the maintenance practices," Ozon said.
"We did offer also a rebate if they did choose to implement any of the things we highlighted that could do with some improving."
There is a lot of research around how flooding can lead to increased stress, other mental health concerns, as well as financial of course
—Alistair Ozon, City of Charlottetown water co-ordinator
Ozon said it was interesting to be in people's basements and talk to residents.
"There is a lot of research around how flooding can lead to increased stress, other mental health concerns, as well as financial, of course," Ozon said.
"Just talking to the residents, it's very apparent that it's something that can really, really affect someone's day-to-day life."
Post-Fiona concerns
Ozon said the city received many calls from residents after post-tropical storm Fiona, when power outages went on for days.
"We had a lot of residents that may have had a good sump pump in place. But as soon as the power goes out, if they don't have a backup battery system of some kind, they're down there every hour or so bailing it out themselves," Ozon said.
"Having this new rebate program that covers those backup battery systems will hopefully reduce the need for that in the future, and give some people some peace of mind if we do have another event like that."
Ozon said the rebate program covers up to 75 per cent of the cost, to a maximum of $1,000, for:
repairs and replacements for existing sump pumps;
new sump pumps, backwater valves, and backup battery systems; and
some water monitoring sensors.
He said there has been lots of interest, with 23 applications approved so far and more in the works.
They will be approved on a first-come, first-served basis up to April 30, or until the program's funding is exhausted.
Frontlines of climate change
The president of Intact Public Entities said the grants are intended to help municipal governments prepare for the impacts of climate change.
"Municipalities are on the front line. They manage most of the public infrastructure, likely around two thirds of the public infrastructure across all levels of government. So they play a significant role," said Larry Ryan.
"We wanted to focus on flood and wildfire because those are the two most significant perils that impact municipalities."
Ryan said there was significant interest in the climate resiliency grants, with 150 applications that they narrowed down to 10, including the Charlottetown program.
"Their proposal quite frankly ticked a lot of the boxes. [It] can be implemented fairly quickly, will make a difference to the homeowner, transportable to other municipalities," Ryan said.
"So we saw this one as getting results fairly quickly."
Ryan said the increasing impact of climate change is reflected in the growing number and value of insurance claims.
"If you look at 2022, [there was] $3 billion of insurable losses across Canada. Nine of the last 11 years have hit the top 10 in terms of losses across Canada," he said.
"With the severity and intensity and the frequency of these property loss claims and property loss damages, we thought it was imperative that we partner with municipalities to see if we can make a difference."
