Narwhal Week, Episode 3: Can Canada learn to live underwater?

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Fatima Syed From Pakistan to Prince Edward Island, floods have been intense this year but that’s not new. Each year for the past few years we’ve seen floods become more frequent and more destructive. Remember British Columbia last year where the floods destroyed a whole highway that stranded 180 people? The year before that, just as the Pandemic started 130 people were forced to flee Fort McMurray, Alberta after ice jams caused the Athabasca and Clearwater Rivers to overflow and create major floods. It’s scary. Flooding is Canada’s most common and most costly natural disaster. Right now, across Canada flooding is considered the biggest climate change risk and consumes more than 75% of federal disaster assistance. Between 2008 and 2021 there were over 4600 internal displacements in the country all of them tied to climate disasters. Some of that figure includes people who had to move more than once. And just last year, 600 Canadians had to move for some period of time due to disasters. It’s not just costing the government, it’s costing us. Flooding has caused approximately $1.5 billion in damage to households, property and infrastructure in Canada annually in recent years. So why don’t we just get ahead of it and move before the floods come? A recent government report on flood proposes something like that. It says the foreseeable future suggests that Canadians must learn to live with water yet the country cannot do this at the expense of safety fiscal responsibility, or equity. So how do we do that? How do we learn to live with water? I’m Fatima Syed sitting in for Jordan Heath-Rawlings. This is The Big Story. We are halfway through Narwhal Week where me and my friends at the Narwhal one of Canada’s leading journalism publications on the climate emergency bring you deep conversations about the biggest emergency of our time. Joining me today to make floods a little less scary is my friend Drew Anderson. He’s the Narwhals prairie’s reporter based in Calgary. Hi, Drew.How’s it going?

Drew Anderson Good, how are you?

Fatima Syed I’m great. I’m very excited to make flooding interesting for people. It can get pretty interesting, that’s for sure. So I want to get straight into it. Earlier this year you wrote about a community that’s at risk of disappearing if flooding continues in that region. Tell us a little bit about Lehigh.

Drew Anderson Well, Lehigh is this tiny little community that is part of a larger town called Drum Heller. It’s sort of famous for dinosaurs. It’s nestled into the Badlands in southern Alberta surrounded by hoodoos. And just up the highway a little bit from Lehigh is the Royal Terrell Museum which is world famous for its dinosaur collection. But Lehi itself is just this tiny little spit of land. It juts out into the Red Deer River. It’s flat, surrounded by cottonwood trees and you know, as of July update from the town the most recent update it’s home to about twelve people. So it was once a more bustling place. There was the coal mine that operated in both Lehigh and the nearby community of East Coulee, which is also part of Drumheller, were sort of, you know, bustling places, homes for coal miners and their families. But now it’s sort of, you know, emptied out and quiet and on the edge of town.

Fatima Syed Okay, so tell us how bad the issue of flooding has been in Lehigh?

Drew Anderson It’s awesome. Pretty bad flooding in 2013 and 2005 and it was largely underwater. The basements were full, sometimes a little higher than that. This is low flat land that is rate sort of sitting in the river. When those waters rise and they do quite often on the Red Deer River, lehigh goes underwater.

Fatima Syed I’m curious how did this town of twelve people come on your radar?

Drew Anderson Well it’s sort of part of a bigger problem in Drumheller. Drumheller, the whole length of it. I mean it is this sort of narrow band of homes and businesses and everything else that follows the river. So it’s sort of nestled in this narrow valley and it stretches down this long line. And Drumheller has been really busy sort of looking at its flood risk and trying to figure out what to do about it. So Lehigh is one small part of this larger town puzzle. They’re investing in firms the whole length of it. They’re looking at what they can save, what they can’t, how they can build up their defenses against this river. And it was just sort of interesting that as part of this debate there was this small community that was going to be wiped off the map. So you know, no berm for Lehigh, no protection for Lehigh. It’s just the town or this little community is just going to be gone.

Fatima Syed If the place is at risk of being decimated by flooding why don’t they just relocate to another part of Drumheller or elsewhere in Alberta?

Drew Anderson Yeah and that’s sort of the heart of the question. But when we’re dealing with stuff and it’s easy to get lost in these big numbers it’s millions of dollars of damage, thousands of cubic meters per second of flood water. But when you really drill down into this stuff it’s a really personal story for those people who are affected and that’s true of Lehigh as well. This isn’t a question of oh why don’t you just simply move? This is their home. John Carl is 83, maybe 84 now he has settled in Lehigh and he doesn’t want to move. He’s old. This is the place where he wants to live out his days, you know, a penny. He lives there with her husband. They fixed up this home. They call it their forever home. They were dreaming of spending the rest of their days there and drinking wine with their neighbour dawn. They have attachment here, they have hopes, they have dreams. This is about where people live. It’s not just dollars and cents to them.

Fatima Syed Let’s put this in context first, right? I mean you and I work for the Narwhal, so we know this. But how do we tell the people that flooding is going to get worse?

Drew Anderson You can tell them. I don’t know if you can convince them but I mean flooding is going to get worse in Alberta. We had the big floods in 2013. It impacted where I live in Calgary. It raised through the southern part of the province and it was a real wakeup call I think, for people. And I think maybe flooding needs to happen in your area before you really do sort of clock it in a way. But this is a big problem. It’s a big problem now it’s going to get worse. Pretty much all of the projections throughout Canada indicate that flooding is going to get worse on the coastlines. It’s going to get worse along rivers. And Canada is a nation that’s built next to water. There’s a lot of people, more than six, 5 million Canadians live along coastlines and all the others live next to water. Basically the cities are built along rivers. If they’re inland, they’re built along the coastlines if they’re on the coast. So these things are going to happen, storms are going to get worse, rainfall is going to get worse and it’s going to impact a lot of people.

Fatima Syed So there’s lots of Lehighs across the country, is that what you’re saying?

Drew Anderson There’s lots of Lehighs. I mean follow a river in Canada and think about all the people that live along it. Look at Vancouver, look at Halifax, look at Montreal, look at all of these places that have that risk of floodwater just sitting right there and the difficulty of climate projections and exactly what’s going to happen? I mean we can say that it’s increasing and certainly, you know, a federal task force has said flood risk is increasing. The risk of flood mixed with the proximity of homes and businesses and all the rest. But there’s also a lot of question marks about just exactly what that’s going to look like. You know, we heard Environment Minister Stephen Gibbo tell CBC just last month after Hurricane Fiona that maybe the federal government should start thinking about how do we tell people that they have to leave their home area because it is at risk to more severe flooding. We see that conversation happening in other countries too, like in Pakistan, which a third of it was underwater.

Fatima Syed And I know they’re having conversations about where do we rebuild so that people aren’t in flood prone regions. How do you have that conversation? How do you convince them? Is it even possible?

Drew Anderson Well, people that I spoke to for this story, and certainly I’ve seen it in other research indicates you need to involve those communities in that conversation and you need to involve them as early as possible. You can’t just come in, you know, tell people that you’re going to expropriate their homes and they got to get out. And here’s the deadline and here’s the check. Thank you, we hope you land safe. It doesn’t work that way and it engenders a lot of anger from those local communities because a government comes in and says, we have this priority, we have this budget line, we have this much money for a berm and we have this much money to buy you out. Thank you very much. But when you’re talking about, yeah, those really direct impacts for people, it just doesn’t work that way. So conversations right from the get go, working with the community on sort of the best way forward is kind of the only way that you can go about these things, I think, without creating a larger mess. I mean, people aren’t going to be happy. I don’t think you can ever go into a community. I mean, we talked about the hurricane earlier this year. Think about how old those communities are in Canada. Think about First Nations, indigenous communities across the country and the attachment to land. I mean, these are difficult conversations to have, but if you don’t involve the community and try to work towards a solution, you’re going to run into serious problems and you’re going to run into a really antagonistic process where you’re just expropriating land and dealing with a lot of anger. Okay, step one is community consultation.

Fatima Syed What comes next? How do we identify what areas need to be relocated, like Drumheller seems to have done, where they figured out that Lehigh is in danger? And then do we just tell everyone to move overnight or do we have to like is this a years long process that we’re looking at?

Drew Anderson Yeah, well, and this goes back to sort of, you know, 2013 really kind of scaring the Alberta government and municipal governments across the province because so much of southern Alberta was underwater. They sort of had a look at, you know, outdated flood mapping and whatnot and said, okay, we need to get our act together. And so Drum, Helen has really been serious about that with the help from the province of looking at, OK, here are the different projections, here’s how they might change. This place is underwater at a one in 50 year flood. This place is underwater and then looking at how much more severe that could be so that work is possible and it’s being done in some places. I don’t think it’s being done everywhere across the country. So, I mean, yeah, you go through, you do that work, you sort of identify it and I think it does happen over years. I don’t think you can just come in and do that. I think it goes back to having those conversations and involving the community early on and looking at what you can do and what you can afford to do. I mean, these are big expensive propositions. The little town of Drum Heller is spending tens of millions of dollars in flood protection and you know, has set aside $22 million just to buy out homes because they can’t protect them, they can’t afford to. Think about. You mentioned Pakistan. Think about the costs involved in that, think about the logistics involved in that. Think about a place like Miami and Vacating, that area. Think about some of these major, major inhabited areas on a scale that Canada just doesn’t understand and think about the costs involved in that and the logistics of moving millions of people and getting rid of billions and billions and billions of dollars of infrastructure. It’s a long process and I think that conversation we’re already behind in having it and it’s important that we start having it now.

Fatima Syed OK, if we have to relocate those twelve people and that’s just twelve people in Lehigh, where do you put them? Do we have enough houses in low flood risk places for people to spend out the rest of their lives? It’s a huge issue. Clearly it is a huge issue and do we have room for people in Canada?

Drew Anderson Yes. But we’re a pretty lucky country in terms of the amount of land that we do in fact have affordability comes into that though. I mean do we have affordable places to put people? And that was a real problem for these twelve people in Lehigh. They’re looking at losing their homes. They’re sort of resigned to the fact that they are going to have to leave at some point. The town is going to get rid of them, they’re going to clear this land one way or the other. But they’ve got beautiful homes in this perk lake setting next to a river that aren’t very expensive and the town is giving them pennies on the dollar essentially compared to what they think they should get and they can’t afford to recreate those homes somewhere else. So they do, they’re wondering where they go and what they can afford. And you know what, I would probably argue that they are comparatively lucky.

Fatima Syed There’s a lot of people that would have even greater financial pressures if they were sort of put in this situation and where do they go from there and how do they find that same sort of place to live? I’m wondering Drew, and this is a slightly, I think a hot take question. Is it cheaper to move people? Because we are talking about costs, right? Municipalities, as we’ve learned over years and years, they have limited budgets and this is going to cost us billions. Is it cheaper to relocate people to save them from the impacts of severe flooding or is it cheaper to save areas to identify areas to save and fortify them? Like is it cheaper to fortify Lehigh for example and let those twelve people stay there?

Drew Anderson Ultimately no. I mean not with Lehigh. And governments do the calculations here. I mean there is this cold hard bureaucracy that comes in and says, okay, yeah, we can build berms, we can build flood protection. But at least in Alberta there’s a ratio of one to one. If we’re going to spend a million dollars we have to be protecting at least a million dollars worth of infrastructure and homes. So they come in, they do the calculation. They say, okay, what is the ratio here? It’s going to cost this much to build a berm in Lehigh? The ratio in Lehigh was I think, zero two. So well below the one to one ratio in downtown Drumhellor. It was something like a one to 50 ratio. So they’re going to spend a million dollars and they’re going to save $50 million of infrastructure and homes. So there is a cold calculation there in Lehigh too. It was a question of well, we built this but the land is pretty porous so we think the water is just going to bubble up under the thing anyway. There was no way to sort of look at this and say we’re going to be okay. And if you look at areas outside of that there is going to be that same sort of calculation. Is it worth it to rebuild New Orleans over and over again? Is it going to be worth it to fix Miami Beach every time there’s a hurricane? Is it going to be worth it to keep rebuilding these places or to suck up that one initial big cost and make sure that you’re not doing that every time there’s a disaster?

Fatima Syed For the people who stay, Drew, for the people of Lehigh for example, that stay, are they able to access sort of, you know, the insurance they need to protect their properties from severe flooding? Are they able to access the supports they need to survive flood after flood? For now in the interim anyway?

Drew Anderson In the interim, yes. They could have access to disaster relief through the province once. That will cover some of their costs. If they’re living in a flood plain the insurance is definitely a problem and the town will be there to help them while the community exists. But they won’t be there forever. Let’s say John Carlson, like, I’m not moving, barricades himself in his house. I mean the town is basically saying we can’t go help you every time this area floods, you’re on your own. But we also can’t let that happen. We can’t just leave people to be at risk. And that’s part of this conversation too is when Drumheller floods, they can’t go in and save Lehigh every time. They can’t go in and save these people and so they will be out of that money, they will be out of that help. They won’t be able to rebuild their homes. Insurance isn’t going to come in and say, okay, we’ll cover the cost of that. They’re living in a flood plain and that has consequences now.

Fatima Syed So I guess what are we left with? Do we just build an emergency bunker? If we don’t want to move and we don’t want to adapt and we don’t have the money, what’s the way forward?

Drew Anderson I don’t know if a bunker would be the best in the flood but it would have to be pretty waterproof stilts. I mean that was an idea that was floated by some of the Lehigh folks but it just doesn’t work. I mean you could be on your stilt stuck in your home with water everywhere and emergency crews can’t really get to you. We’re making leg of it but it’s a damnable situation. I don’t really know what you do. Ultimately people are going to have to leave these areas. I mean if an area is going to be consistently flooding, you can’t live there and that’s a big problem. We build our cities in floodplains. You look at Calgary which was underwater in 2013, vast swaths of the inner city were underwater. There’s still people there. I mean downtown Calgary is not going anywhere. The homes along the river are not going anywhere. They tried to buy some people out through a voluntary process that didn’t really work. That was in 2013, we’re now in 2022 and we still don’t have our flood mitigation in place. We’re still trying to build the dry dam in Spring Bank that will help downtown Calgary. We’re still trying to get these things done and they are happening but it’s slow. We’re talking about ten years and it’s just kind of a cross your fingers and hope it doesn’t flood again situation until those situations are in place. Until those mitigation measures are in place. And so far so good. But you know, next year, next snowmelt, next rainfall.

Fatima Syed You visited Lehigh. Do you feel like after you spoke to John Carl and Penny and all the other people that you did speak to, do you get the sense that there is hope for those communities that are at risk of severe flooding or are you fearing the worst for them in the months and years to come?

Drew Anderson Certainly in the case of Lehigh there was a sort of sadness, there wasn’t hope. You know, it was how do we get the best deal now going forward because this town is gone, this town is dead, this little community will not exist. So there wasn’t hope for them and I think that that will be the same in a lot of communities. I mean it’s depressing to say but you know, historic communities in Canada where people have built these lives, where they’ve raised their children, where they had hopes and dreams for what’s to come, they’re going to be gone and I don’t think there’s anything ultimately you can do about that. We’re just these tiny little people in the face of an increasingly angry climate.

Fatima Syed I don’t want to end it on a depressing note.

Drew Anderson OK, well let’s have a little ray of hope because I mean there are promises in how you develop new communities and how you move forward and how you build resilience. I think that if we start having these conversations and we start thinking about how you adapt to climate, you can have beautiful communities that people live in and you can have resilient communities where we don’t have to have these kind of conversations in the future. Yes, and I’m encouraged by the fact that people are doing the work. Like, we now do have a task force that is mapping the country, that is mapping provinces just to identify the regions that are at risk and start having those conversations more seriously. Do I wish that those conversations started like a decade earlier? Sure, but they started and I think that’s encouraging.

Fatima Syed Drew, thank you so much for talking to us about Lehigh and hopefully it’ll be a story that other communities will also learn from and start the conversation on how to protect ourselves from flooding.

Drew Anderson It’s my pleasure. Thanks for the questions.

Fatima Syed So that was Drew Anderson, the Narwhals Prairies Reporter, and that was another episode of Narwhal Week on The Big Story, and we’re thrilled to hear from you that you’re enjoying these conversations. Please keep sending over those good vibes. We want to hear your thoughts on all the things we’re talking about. And if you want to learn more, you can always read Drew stories on The Narwhal CA, and we’ve linked to some of them in the show notes. If by now you still don’t know what the Narwhal is, we’re a non profit online magazine that has no ads and no paywall, thanks to support of our more than 4600 members. If you join our Pod, you get a tax receipt and cool swag like a tube. So if you want to support more award winning climate journalism and, you know, fuel more conversations like the ones we’ve been having this week, visit thenarwal CA member join our Pod by donating literally whatever you can afford. If you like what you’re hearing on the show this week, tell them and then tell them what other conversations you want to hear about the climate emergency or literally anything else. You can contact the show on literally any platform. They’re on Twitter at the bigstory FBN. They have an email hello? At thebigstorypodcast CA, you can even call them 416-935-5935. They’re on all the podcast apps. You can even ask your smart speaker to play The Big Story. Like, there’s no excuses here. I’m bob nose sitting in for Jordan Heath-Rawlings. I’ll be back tomorrow with another one of my friends at The Narwhal to talk to you about some new thing about the climate Emergency. See you then.