The provinces of Quebec and Ontario are dealing with climate change issues, especially in their biggest cities.
A suite atop the tallest building can distance you from the noise and traffic below, but even the highest penthouse can’t escape the reality of climate change.
Nowhere is this particular grim climate truth more urgent than in Central Canada’s two biggest cities. Millions of people live in apartments or condos in the metropolitan areas of Toronto and Montreal, and many do not have the ability or money to mitigate the wild weather that’s coming. In both cities, many projects are proposed, or under way, to protect vulnerable residents.
“Because of the fact that we have such a large population, it feels like the changes are even worse in those regions, just because our vulnerability to those changes is much greater because of the sheer number of people that live in those urban areas,” says Isabelle Charon, the head of knowledge transfer and training with Ouranos, a Montreal-based consortium on climate change and adaptation.
“Because we’ve put asphalt everywhere, and we’ve taken out all of the green that we could have had in cities, that creates an urban heat island effect, so that, essentially, the heat stays in the cities and the nights don’t cool,” Charon says.
“The number of deaths has skyrocketed in those events for both provinces when we have long periods of very warm temperatures in the summers. We’re expecting almost a doubling or tripling of the number of very warm days in the summers in coming years, so that will have a very real impact on the health of the population.”
The issues in cities are many and complex, but two broad fronts are the battle to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that cause climate change, and to improve both existing buildings (with updates and other projects) and new buildings (with municipal, provincial and even federal rules and codes on new construction.)
This is what Shannon Logan calls “future-proofing” residential buildings. Logan is senior program manager with the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA), and works on the Sustainable Neighbourhood Action Program (SNAP).
“Basically, it’s working closely with stakeholders in a targeted neighbourhood or community to develop an action plan for climate action and climate resilience,” Logan says. “We do know that some communities, like towers, are disproportionately affected by climate change, especially the most vulnerable areas, where there’s low income,” or there are other existing issues that can be exacerbated by climate change.
People in highrises are not homogeneous, and range from wealthy owners to subsidized renters, from transitory students to those isolated by age, illness or even recent emigration to Canada. Many have issues, such as lack of resources or mobility, little access to green space and even food insecurity.
The actions are equally varied. Building owners can install backup power systems and alternative energy systems and make buildings more energy-efficient. They can also protect against floods, plant trees to create green space and allow food gardens on balconies, just to name a few trends being seen in the Toronto region. Municipalities can promote urban agriculture, and build green spaces and other features to provide shade, and facilities such as splash pads and cooling centres to help on the hottest days. These are perhaps the simplest changes that a community can make in a vortex of varied interests.
“You have to bring all of those different stakeholders together, and you have to work across sectors,” Logan says. “It’s tower owners, it’s residents, it’s the city, it’s the conservation authority, it’s multiple levels… We’re working in this space where public health and climate come together. Co-operation is very important.”
Creating green space in cities is complex, but not impossible. The small city of Trois-Rivières, Que., transformed Saint Maurice street by replacing parking spaces with hundreds of trees and shrubs and 18,000 plants, in addition to installing new pipes and sumps to manage storm water. The project reduces asphalt and, therefore, urban heat.
Storm water drainage is a danger because the infrastructure in so many cities is ancient — this is Canada’s infamous “infrastructure deficit.” The danger becomes acute as climate change increases precipitation, and the frequency of singularly heavy precipitation increases.
“Some of their solutions are to put in more green, to put in some sort of water retention — facilities and green roofs, for example — to try and capture more of that rainwater that normally would end up in our sewer system,” says Montreal’s Charon. Again, it requires everyone to get involved, as government can’t face the crisis alone.
“If we leave it just to the city of Toronto or the city of Montreal, it’s not going to happen,” Charon says. “Public spaces are one thing, but that needs to happen as well on private spaces, and that’s a huge challenge.”
That challenge of involvement spreads from the cities into the St. Lawrence River and the Great Lakes, the health of which is critical for the many municipalities in Quebec and Ontario that drink from them, work on them or live next to them.
“It’s politically a big endeavour to try and figure out what’s going to happen with the St. Lawrence, who’s responsible for what and what (low-water levels) will mean for everybody [who’s] using that water. For agriculture, there will be less, there’ll be less for boats, there’ll be less for municipalities, etc.”
The same critical issues are being felt in the Great Lakes, which, environmentally, are the beating heart of Ontario.
The challenges are difficult, even when the best solution is to simply not do the wrong thing.
“There are a lot of things,” says Zoe Panchen, a botanist at the Canadian Museum of Nature who studies climate change. “We could try and be more resilient to some of these climate extremes — allow for green spaces in the city, and not build out further, you know, not building on wetlands.”
The answers begin with just talking about them, says Sharon Lam, a project manager in climate science at the TRCA.
“We’ve found that sharing concrete stories of successes and actions that are being taken, locally or elsewhere, is a strong motivating factor for people to take action.”
The fight to stay frozen
Climate change is an unwelcome visitor for winter tourism and sports, and ski resorts worldwide face a future that looks as challenging as a black diamond run.
“Is this the beginning of the end for some European ski resorts?” fretted a recent U.K. headline.
The situation may for now be less alarming in North America, and there’s much research and adaptation in snow-making under way. Some of that research is helping a Carleton University study on preserving another famous winter tourist attraction, the “world’s largest skating rink” on Ottawa’s Rideau Canal.
“Ski hills (have) gotten very good at making snow, so we’re actually sort of borrowing some of the concepts there, and applying that to a body of water,” says Cole Van De Ven, an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering. “How can we make that body of water hold heat a little bit differently, to freeze and stay frozen?”
He adds, “We don’t necessarily [always] connect that climate change will impact the little things we enjoy in life — the canal, I think, is a great example. It resonates with people.”
Van De Ven and colleague Yeowon Kim are studying the volume, salinity and temperature of water coming into the canal through storm drains, and their work could potentially help more critical systems. Their simulations, he says, “will allow us to better understand how urban environment impacts things like water resource systems.”