As climate change fuels more frequent and severe weather disasters, such as wildfires, floods and storms, the harm to Canadians and their communities is becoming increasingly apparent.
Disaster assistance is an important social safety net that ideally protects everyone against the resulting eco-social risks. However, our research has found that the ongoing failure to sufficiently plan for, and address, vulnerabilities in disaster preparedness, response and recovery is worsening existing inequities for some vulnerable groups and hurting community resilience.
What Canada needs is a climate-responsive social protection system that would provide a safety net to protect against the economic consequences of disasters. This would ensure climate change does not leave people in multidimensional poverty or trap them there. Options could include anticipatory cash transfers, resettlement programs and publicly provided temporary modular housing.
Those left behind
For our research project, which is not yet published, we spoke with service providers and policymakers across Canada involved in coping with wildfires, storms and floods from 2016 to 2023, including individuals working for local and national nonprofit organizations as well as multiple levels of government.
Our interviews uncovered a harsh reality. Current responses to disasters create barriers to accessing support for marginalized individuals and people lacking resources. That’s because these systems are generally designed for people who are able-bodied, speak English or French, have an address and a car, and are not precariously employed or unemployed.
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Thus, the level of support may not fully meet the needs of people who are already struggling, resulting in greater vulnerability after the disaster. These findings are consistent with a 2023 BC Ombudsperson report that a “one-size-fits-all” approach results in unfair outcomes.
This may have dire consequences.
In the short term, individuals – especially seniors, unhoused people and those with mental and physical conditions – have experienced health crises and even died as a result of chaotic disaster responses. But there is also a longer-term impact when affected individuals fall into, or become trapped in, poverty.
Exacerbated inequalities
These vulnerabilities are exacerbated by multiple ongoing crises and our ill-equipped responses. Take, for example, the ongoing housing crisis and how people experiencing homelessness and/or housing precarity navigate climate-related crises. We heard about multiple barriers for them, such as the lack of government identification, which leaves some struggling to access support at critical times.
During a crisis, pre-existing support such as health-care teams, case workers, drop-in centres, shelters, etc., are gone. Individuals are often evacuated to unfamiliar cities, leaving them isolated and at risk of harm and exploitation. Some are evacuated with only limited information and placed in a hotel room that may not meet their needs or where they are physically and socially isolated.
Seniors and people with chronic health conditions face similar challenges during evacuations. As one of our interview participants shared, “Seniors died waiting for airplanes, they were hospitalized, and they died waiting… They waited in line for 12 to 18 hours, standing in plus-30- degree weather outside. Those in the hospital waited in hangars, but they still waited and some died waiting.”
Existing support systems already isolate seniors. Look no further than the long-term care home crisis during the pandemic. However, during climate-related severe weather crises, they are also often left behind with support not adequately tailored to their needs.
These problems also follow marginalized Canadians into the recovery phase following disasters because they often need to navigate a new and inadequate support system.
Those who were already on the thin line of precarity find themselves falling further. Those who lack access to adequate and affordable insurance, for example, are left with little opportunity to rebuild. This particularly affects seniors on fixed income and those who lived closer to the poverty line prior to the disaster.
Adaptive responses are needed
As climate change drives increasingly frequent and intense weather disasters, eco-social risks are becoming more apparent.
As one participant in our research stated, “The distinction between who is victim from a disaster and who is victim from social conditions is becoming more and more blurry.”
That clearly illustrates why we need a social protection system that is adaptive and responsive to climate shocks.
This requires addressing gaps in emergency-management programs and more co-ordination across levels of government. For example, although some provinces have established emergency social services and recovery support systems (such as B.C.’s emergency support services program) there is a lack of a co-ordinated federal architecture similar to FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency in the United States.
Climate-responsive social protection
But an even bigger and more foundational reform is needed. In an era increasingly defined by eco-social risk, we need to adjust existing programs – such as social assistance, social insurance and labour-market programs – that are meant to protect people from falling into poverty, and introduce new programs to fulfil four functions:
- Readiness: Ensure existing programs are climate-ready by adjusting how services are delivered, exploring where expanded coverage or enhanced benefits may be needed and removing barriers to access.
- Prevention: Proactively reduce vulnerability to climate impacts by addressing existing poverty and exclusion, including through investing in community assets.
- Protection: Help people cope with shocks and recover without having to make maladaptive choices – foregoing education, skipping meals or selling assets, etc. – by providing cash transfers and in-kind support.
- Transformation: Promote fair access to net-zero opportunities and encourage climate adaptation and mitigation, including through social programs to manage disruptions arising from the transition off fossil fuels.
One example would be anticipatory cash transfers to address the economic consequences of climate impacts, such as the Kenyan hunger safety net program for flooding or the United Kingdom’s cold weather payment program.
Other options include resettlement programs to help people who choose to move within Canada due to climate risks to find work and housing, or publicly provided portable housing to support low-income and underinsured families in the months and years before they can rebuild.
Canada’s current social protection system was developed in the post-Second World War period to support the resilience of people and communities in the uncertainties of life in that era 80 years ago.
Now, in the 21st century, we must make sweeping changes to deal with the impact of severe weather caused by climate change.
The authors partnered with the Institute for Research on Public Policy through a partnership engage grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada to research disaster-driven vulnerabilities and best practices for socially inclusive disaster assistance. The IRPP publishes Policy Options.
