Last summer, southern Ontario was rocked by massive floods that led to more than $1 billion in damages.

It was the type of disaster that unfortunately could become increasingly familiar as the risk of flooding rises with climate change.

But there are solutions at hand. I caught up with Ontario reporter Fatima Syed — who “literally watched water come up through the drain” in the parking lot of her Mississauga residence — to learn about how we can better plan for a world with more severe weather events.

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A year after a historic flood ravaged Peguis First Nation, there’s hope on the horizon.

The spring thaw passed without incident this year — a much needed respite for the still-recovering community — and a new, multi-government collaboration is giving Peguis a voice in how future floods are managed.

The 2022 flood was the most devastating in the First Nation’s embattled history, and the community’s leadership have long maintained the worst of the damages could have been avoided — if only governments had been listening.

The May 2022 flood in Peguis First Nation was the latest in a string of major floods. The community had previously been forced to evacuate in 2006, 2009, 2011 and 2014. Photo: Aaron Vincent Elkaim / The Narwhal

Over the last two decades, Peguis has faced five major floods, prompting widespread evacuations, destroying infrastructure, hundreds of homes and displacing thousands of community members. Year after year, the Nation has urged provincial and federal governments to step in and help fund infrastructure projects to keep the community safe, come hell or high water. Year after year, they’ve been denied.

But as the anniversary of last year’s flood-peak passed this month, Peguis First Nation housing and emergency management director William Sutherland is optimistic.

“I’m a happy man,” Sutherland says on a phone call. “We are working on a permanent solution to bring everybody home, which is great news.”

Repeated Manitoba floods, repeated devastation have battered Peguis First Nation

More than 2,100 people were evacuated from Peguis First Nation when the community was overcome by flooding in spring 2022. More than 600 of those evacuees still haven’t returned.

The floods caused an estimated $300 million in damages, including the devastation of more than 300 homes, many of which were written off owing to mould.

Last year’s flood was one disaster too many for a First Nation that has spent decades in recovery mode. Repeated disasters have contributed to a severe housing crisis that has left evacuees stranded in hotel rooms and apartments across the province for years.

Some evacuees have been away from home for over a decade, relying on inconsistent Red Cross and income assistance funding to pay the bills. Those in hotels have been forced to shuffle from place to place on short notice as hotels run out of room. They’ve been separated from their families, children haven’t been able to attend school and the stress of displacement has caused anguish that only deepens as the evacuations drag on.

Hundreds of homes in Peguis have been written off due to mould damage over the last two decades. Though each flood brings some federal recovery funding, it hasn’t been enough to restore the Nation’s housing stock. Photo: Aaron Vincent Elkaim / The Narwhal

“Due to chronic underfunding of infrastructure, including flood prevention measures by governments, flooding episodes never end for Peguis,” former Peguis Chief Glenn Hudson wrote in a 2022 press release.

“Most of the houses are never re-built as a result of underfunding, and so many members can never come back to live in their community among their people. That is why I call these members ‘refugees,’ not evacuees.”

For years, Hudson and other community leaders had been pressuring the federal and provincial governments to help the First Nation develop long-term and permanent flood mitigation solutions, to no avail.

Leaders optimistic new partnerships will bring long-term flood solutions to Peguis First Nation

In the aftermath of the 2022 flood, a new partnership between Peguis, nearby Fisher River Cree Nation, local municipalities, the provincial government and Indigenous Services Canada (which administers emergency response services) has emerged, Sutherland says.

“Efforts are being made to put Peguis in a more proactive and flood mitigated position moving forward, that way we hopefully never have to have a partial or full evacuation ever again,” he says.

The effects of that partnership are already being felt. Last year’s crisis was exacerbated by the fact Peguis was denied federal funding to start emergency preparations in the spring because provincial forecasts predicted a low risk of flooding on the Fisher River.

“If we don’t qualify for funding and weather systems do impact our area, the most advanced warning that we get is 24 to 48 hours,” Sutherland says. “There’s nothing that can be done in that short period of time.”

With advanced funding, Peguis First Nation is able to buy and install tools like sandbags, submersible pumps and tiger dams before the water comes. Each year, the Nation works to flood-proof around 100 of the most damage-prone homes. Photo: Aaron Vincent Elkaim / The Narwhal

Meeting notes between Indigenous Services Canada and Peguis leadership, obtained through a freedom of information request, showed councillors were incensed they had been denied the chance to prepare for the impending threat.

“Why can’t we be at the table when you make decisions? We would have told you what would happen,” one band councillor said during a May 4, 2022, meeting. “Someone needs to be held responsible.”

But this year, Sutherland says the partnership allowed Peguis an opportunity to show the province how the region’s unique geography puts the First Nation at an increased risk of flooding — even when predicted weather patterns and water levels indicate a lower risk.

Manitoba’s transportation and infrastructure department is currently working on new flood-risk maps for the Fisher River through a cost-sharing agreement with the federal government, an unnamed provincial spokesperson said in an emailed statement.

“The flooding that occurred in 2022 has reinforced the need … to identify and move forward with flood mitigation solutions,” the spokesperson said.

Sutherland presented evidence showing drainage systems on farmland south of the First Nation had been altered, prompting increased strain on the Fisher River watershed; he was also able to show how extreme rainfall caused a ridge north of the community to breach, leading to flooding from all sides.

The result was a more accurate flood forecast in 2023, which allowed the community to secure $2.5 million in preparatory funding.

“That put us in a more proactive position,” Sutherland says. “We utilized sandbagging and trucks and trailers, and were able to at least protect the most flood-prone homes.”

Collaboration on long-term solutions hard fought for Manitoba First Nation

After the magnitude of last year’s flood, Peguis’ leadership ramped up a decades-long pressure campaign to get long-term flood mitigation commitments from provincial and federal governments.

During meetings at the height of the flooding, then-Chief Hudson expressed the stress, frustration and anguish experienced by his community, according to the meeting notes obtained.

“We’re sick of it,” Hudson told federal officials while asking to discuss long-term mitigation options at a May 3 meeting.

A month later, as cleanup operations begun in Peguis, Hudson stressed he “did not want any more studies” and would take guidance from the plans outlined after floods a decade earlier, which showed a need for new culverts and drainage, better roads, controlled water flow and upgrades to the local water-treatment plan.

Roads, culverts, bridges, pedestrian crossings and sewage infrastructure were damaged by the 2022 floods. Leadership in Peguis have long-asked the federal government for funding to help critical infrastructure withstand 1-in-200 year flood levels. Photo: Aaron Vincent Elkaim / The Narwhal

Indigenous Services seemed to take heed: though they noted “this path for long-term mitigation will take years,” the department committed to working toward the community’s immediate and long-term needs. Indigenous Services recommended both a working group between local, provincial and federal leaders and a written agreement to guide the development of solutions.

Peguis’ cries for help were further bolstered in the fall when a November 2022 auditor general report found Indigenous Services had failed to provide adequate emergency management supports to First Nations across the country, citing a lack of regional emergency plans, a failure to identify high-risk communities, a sizeable backlog of underfunded disaster mitigation infrastructure projects and inconsistent supports for evacuees, particularly those facing long-term evacuations.

Many of these gaps had been identified in a 2013 auditor general report of emergency management in First Nations but had not been addressed, the 2022 report said. With environmental disasters like floods becoming increasingly severe and frequent because of climate change, the report said, First Nations are increasingly at risk, making mitigation all the more important.

The housing department in Peguis First Nation has spent years trying to support evacuees whose homes were damaged or written off after previous floods. Some evacuees have never returned to their home community. Photo: Aaron Vincent Elkaim / The Narwhal

Of nearly 600 evacuations affecting 268 First Nations — and more than 130,000 people — between 2009 and 2022, the report found the flood evacuees from Peguis had been stranded the longest.

The auditor general described the federal department as “more reactive than preventative,” noting Indigenous Services spent 3.5 times more money responding to emergencies than helping communities prepare for or prevent them between 2018 and 2022.

Two-thirds of First Nation-led infrastructure proposals that would reduce the impact of natural disasters had gone unreviewed or unfunded, adding to mounting backlogs, the report found.

That’s in part because Indigenous Services’ infrastructure budget (in place until March 2024) dedicates just $12 million a year for these proposals, though the department can use funds from outside that budget when available. Over four fiscal years, the department spent nearly $74 million on these infrastructure projects — 40 per cent more than was budgeted.

Indigenous Services told the auditor general the current backlog of infrastructure projects would cost at least $291 million to complete, meaning it would take more than 24 years to fund them all.

“First Nations communities are likely to continue to experience emergencies that could be prevented or mitigated by building the infrastructure,” the auditor general wrote.

Housing, infrastructure upgrades on the horizon for Peguis First Nation

Sutherland thinks the auditor general’s report could have been a driving force behind the new multi-government collaboration, but regardless of the impetus, he’s happy to see the community’s calls getting answered.

“I’m really happy this year with that partnership in place. … We qualified for the additional funding that put us in a more proactive position, and I’m even more happy now because we did not flood,” Sutherland says, emphasizing the last four words.

While he won’t give too many details about the plans being discussed in those meetings, he’s confident the work they’re doing will bring evacuees home for good.

“It’s at an excellent stage,” he says. “There’s going to be a lot of happy people.”

Building homes above the flood line is the first step toward making sure evacuees have a home to come back to — and one that can withstand future disasters. Photo: Aaron Vincent Elkaim / The Narwhal

So far, efforts have focused on the housing crisis. There are hundreds of homes to repair, restore or rebuild — but this time they’ll be built to withstand future floods. New housing developments are underway, raised above the 1-in-200 year flood levels the community saw last year.

In an emailed statement, Indigenous Services Canada said long-term mitigation planning is “complex” and the work is still in preliminary stages, but noted the department is working with stakeholders to address housing needs and repatriation of evacuees. The department said it provided $18 million to the First Nation between May 2022 and March 2023 for both flood recovery and 2023 flood preparation.

Sutherland has a hopeful, if modest, vision for the future of his community.

“I’m not saying that Peguis is not going to flood going forward — we likely will,” he says. “But we’re going to get to that point where, yes, Peguis flooded, but I’m glad to report that there have been no reported damages and no need for any evacuations.”

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Some folks call flood pump stations “meat grinders.”

These pumps are common along B.C.’s Fraser River, where they remove water from nearby streams when levels get high and pump it into the river to prevent flooding.

But fish and amphibians can get sucked in with the water, said Lina Azeez, campaign manager for Watershed Watch Salmon Society.

“They grind them up in the machinery,” she said. “That’s a huge problem.”

Other flood infrastructure — such as dikes, floodgates and pumps — blocks fish passageways and makes potential spawning areas unreachable. As part of an ongoing mapping project, Watershed Watch has found 1,500 kilometres of current or potential fish habitat in the lower Fraser and its tributaries is blocked by flood infrastructure.

“It’s the biggest habitat issue that you’ve never heard of,” said Aaron Hill, executive director of Watershed Watch.

Many of these flood structures are due to be upgraded in response to sea level rise, increased seasonal flooding or aging. Hill said governments now have a chance to build innovative, fish-friendly structures such as pump stations that don’t catch fish or floodgates that open and close with the tide unlike older models that remain closed most of the time.

Natural infrastructure can also be harnessed to provide flood protection without disrupting wildlife. Lakes and ponds can help absorb freshet, while wetlands and vegetated areas absorb water and stabilize soil. A 2018 Insurance Bureau of Canada report found that natural infrastructure is “cost effective” by design but “underutilized.”

“There’s this tremendous opportunity to open up a whole bunch of habitat by putting in flood control structures that are better for salmon and also keep our communities as safe or even safer from flooding,” Hill said.

Cities continue to choose cheaper, non-fish-friendly options

The reality of flood risk has been looming over B.C. after above-average spring snowmelt in May caused the biggest flood in Williams Lake in approximately 200 years, triggering a state of emergency. A recent analysis by the World Resources Institute found that without major investments in flood protection, the number of people affected by coastal and river flooding each year could more than double by 2030. 

About 350,000 people live in the Fraser floodplain and are at risk of floods. The Fraser Basin Council estimates a major flood could cost up to $30 billion in damages. 

The NDP government committed $519 million to wildfire and flood preparation and response in its 2020 budget. But Hill said flood mitigation money keeps going to projects that block habitat and potentially harm fish. 

Hill pointed to Pitt Meadows, about 40 kilometres east of Vancouver, where community members have seen hundreds of dead fish at the McKechnie pump station. Despite this, the city has received one government grant and applied for another to replace two other pump stations with models that are just as harmful to fish. 

Watershed Watch Salmon Society is calling for fish-friendly flood infrastructure to replace old infrastructure along the lower Fraser River. Photo: Collette Rooney / Watershed Watch Salmon Society

Meghan Rooney, a field coordinator with Watershed Watch Salmon Society, conducts a habitat assessment at a side channel of the Coquitlam River. Photo: Collette Rooney / Watershed Watch Salmon Society

“Fish-friendly pumps are not requirements of these grant applications, but they were carefully considered,” the city said in a March 5 statement. The city added that it consulted with the B.C. Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy and Fisheries and Oceans Canada and found that fish-friendly pumps would spread invasive species and affect native species, including salmon. Fish-friendly infrastructure allows the free movement of fish — invasive and non-invasive species — whereas traditional infrastructure can kill them.

“We have our federal aquatic species regulation, which prevents us from moving or transporting invasive species, which we know we have in our water courses,” Samanatha Maki, director of engineering and operations services at the City of Pitt Meadows, said at a council meeting in February. 

Azeez said both invasive and non-invasive fish have been killed by pumps in Pitt Meadows. She said the city is relying on the assumption that federal regulation allows for the killing of native species so long as invasive species are killed as well. But, she said, this is “not necessarily accurate.” 

The Fisheries Act prohibits human activities and projects that result in the “death of fish by means other than fishing” and the “harmful alteration, disruption or destruction of fish habitat.”

The Aquatic Invasive Species Regulations prohibits the release of invasive species and allows eradication of those species, but “the prohibition on harm to non-invasive species under the Fisheries Act continues to apply,” Azeez said.

She added there are more efficient ways to address the impacts invasive species can have on non-invasive fish, such as protecting and restoring habitat and improving water quality.

Another big obstacle for many municipalities is the cost of fish-friendly infrastructure, which can be more expensive up front than existing designs, Azeez said. 

At the council meeting, Maki conceded this was a major factor in the recommendation to go with standard pumps. “One of the biggest drivers is cost, with fish-friendly pumps being twice the cost,” she said in reference to the capital cost. She added that the maintenance cost is “a bit of an unknown,” while the existing pumps are “reliable technology.” 

Azeez and Hill want the government to adjust infrastructure funding requirements to advance fish-friendly options in collaboration with local governments and First Nations. 

A spokesperson from the Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development told The Narwhal by email the province “encourages” fish-friendly infrastructure, but local authorities are responsible for developing that infrastructure.

Councillor calls for regional plan to bring back fish habitat to the Fraser 

While municipalities use provincial money to build more non-fish-friendly infrastructure, the province and the federal government are investing in habitat restoration through the salmon restoration and innovation fund, which supports projects to protect and revitalize salmon populations. The almost $150-million fund will be distributed over five years.

In 2019, MakeWay (formerly Tides Canada) received almost $600,000 from the fund to identify priority sites and fund infrastructure upgrades at those sites that would also make way for fish. In one of those projects, Watershed Watch is helping Port Coquitlam upgrade its pump station and floodgate at Maple Creek.

“It’s been on Port Coquitlam’s to-do list for a while, but they never really had the money to do it,” Azeez said.

Maple Creek supports all seven species of salmon, as well as steelhead and cutthroat trout. But spawning grounds are blocked by a floodgate, a “big metal door” that blocks out aquatic life, said Laura Dupont, a Port Coquitlam city councillor. While the old floodgate remains closed most of the time, the new gate would remain open at low tide.

Flood infrastructure blocks 1,500 kilometres of current or potential salmon habitat in the lower Fraser River, including important spawning habitat. Photo: Eiko Jones / Watershed Watch Salmon Society

Dupont believes the payoffs will be fast.

“Life comes back so quickly. Nature is so resilient,” she said.

“I would expect within one spawning season, we should see salmon returning and being able to spawn, and just letting life back into a waterway that’s been deprived of it for too long.”

In 2018, Dupont brought a resolution forward to the Union of B.C. Municipalities to prioritize fish-friendly flood infrastructure. The resolution passed and was presented to the province as a recommendation to consider for future decision-making. She said there needs to be a regional plan to bring back fish habitat in the Fraser.

“Municipality by municipality is so piecemeal,” she said, adding that she’d like to see enough funding to update all floodgates along the lower Fraser.

Innovative fish-friendly infrastructure can restore habitat and protect land

While fish-friendly infrastructure may be more expensive, the payoffs can be huge.

In Washington state, public-private partnership Floodplains by Design issues grants for projects that reduce flood risk and restore habitat. Between 2013 and 2018, it funded 36 projects on 13 major floodplains thanks to US$115 million from the Washington legislature. The projects have removed 700 residences from high-risk floodplain areas, restored 40 kilometres of salmon habitat and protected 200 hectares of agricultural land.  

In the Netherlands, severe flooding in the 1990s forced more than 250,000 people to evacuate and prompted the government to develop a more innovative approach to flood management. The Room for the River project, launched in 2007 and completed in 2018, lowered floodplains, created water buffers, relocated levees, increased the depth of side channels and built flood bypasses. 

As part of the Netherland’s Room for the River project, a new channel was dug for the Waal river, creating an island in the city of Nijmegen. Photo: Richard Brunsveld / Unsplash

Azeez also pointed to the living dike project, a collaboration between the cities of Delta and Surrey and Semiahmoo First Nation. Instead of building an existing concrete dike higher to protect communities from sea level rise, which would mean encroaching on more land and vital salmon habitat, the coalition has launched a project to gradually increase the elevation of the foreshore over 30 years in hopes of providing natural protection and preserving the salt marsh habitat.

Looking at innovations that have taken place around the world and close to home, Hill said the fact that the Fraser River lacks an innovative flood management plan amounts to “government inertia.”

“There’s a lot of fear around moving away from the status quo,” he said. “But it really hasn’t served us very well.”

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Biologist Eric Balke was biking through Richmond, B.C., a few years ago when something caught his eye. He stopped at the dike and looked over to the other side — and saw a huge salt marsh expanding in front of him. He was surprised he’d never known it was there.

“I’m a biologist. I should have known better,” he mused. “It’s like you build a dike and that’s the end of the world, that’s the end of the area we care about.” 

“But these marshes are truly the gem of the Fraser estuary.” 

Salt marshes — coastal wetlands flooded and drained by salt water — can be found butting up against dikes throughout the Fraser River estuary, an internationally recognized centre of biodiversity with 17,000 hectares of wetlands. The sandy banks of salt marshes are filled with seagrass and low brush. Eagles fly overhead, eyeing sturgeon stranded on the bank. Packs of coyotes howl at nightfall.

But sea level rise caused by climate change threatens these rich ecosystems, which support migratory birds, salmon, seals and other marine life. Dikes, built to prevent flooding, make them even more vulnerable. When the sea level rises, salt marshes can migrate landward — but not if they’re blocked by structures like dikes. This phenomenon is called coastal squeeze. Communities behind those dikes are also at risk of catastrophic flooding if the ocean breaches the dikes.

The salt marshes in Boundary Bay are being conscripted in a novel fight against climate change-induced sea level rise as part of a ‘living dike’ solution. Photo: City of Surrey

Coastal squeeze is threatening Boundary Bay, home to another salt marsh in the estuary. But making the existing dike taller would also mean making it wider, encroaching on the salt marsh on one side or agricultural land on the other.

To protect the salt marsh and nearby communities, a coalition — which includes the City of Surrey, the City of Delta and the Semiahmoo First Nation — has formed to try an innovative solution.

It is creating a “living dike.”

In a pilot project at Boundary Bay, a 250-kilometre stretch of seashore that spans the three jurisdictions, the partners plan to deposit sediment in the marsh over three decades to raise its elevation and create a natural dike that can survive sea level rise. The gradual pace will allow plant life to adapt. Adding sediment too fast could bury plants and affect animals that use those plants for food or shelter. 

The hope is the marsh will survive and continue to provide wave protection for the people living nearby. Salt marshes in front of coastal dikes can reduce wave heights near the shore by as much as 40 per cent, slowing down wave energy and reducing the risk of flooding. They can also attenuate rainwater. Balke said eelgrass, which is abundant in salt marshes, can stabilize sediment, reduce erosion and further cushion wave action. 

Ducks fly along the waters of Boundary Bay. Photo: Tim Fitzgerald / Ducks Unlimited Canada

Biologist Eric Balke is working on a pilot project to turn the salt marsh in B.C.’s Boundary Bay into a living dike. Photo: Jennifer Osborne / The Narwhal

Wild horsetail along McNeeleys Trail in Boundary Bay. Photo: Jennifer Osborne / The Narwhal

The vision is: homes will remain, the salt marsh will remain, the dike will remain. While it will take decades of work and hundreds of millions of dollars, if the project is a success, no one will notice a thing.

This is drastically different from the notable concrete, human-made infrastructure to mitigate flooding, which has disrupted natural processes in the Fraser estuary such as salmon migration. This pilot project aims to strengthen the built-in protection of this ecosystem. 

“These ecosystems are infrastructure. The whole point of the living dike is harnessing that power,” said Balke, who is coordinator of the South Coast Conservation Land Management Program and part of the Boundary Bay Living Dike Roundtable, a group providing input and guidance for the project.

West Coast Environmental Law estimates the cost for the living dike will be $175 to $250 million. For the pilot phase, Delta and Surrey have committed just under $3.5 million combined. The federal government pledged more than $76 million to mitigate coastal flooding in Delta, Surrey and the Semiahmoo First Nation, which includes funding for the project. Some costs will be covered by the province.

Design work is set to start later this year.

A map of the Fraser estuary. Map: Carol Linnitt / The Narwhal

Using ‘the most important ecosystems in B.C.’ to prevent flooding

Flooding has always happened in the Fraser delta, but intense spring thaws and storm surges have put more people at risk. According to the Insurance Bureau of Canada, 1.7 million Canadian households — or 19 per cent of Canada’s population — are at risk of river and surface water flooding. 

A 2016 report by the Fraser Basin Council said a major flood in the Lower Mainland could be the most costly disaster in Canadian history. The report predicts a coastal flood would result in losses of $19 billion and a Fraser River flood would lead to losses of almost $23 billion. 

In another study, the council found that dikes in B.C. “generally do not meet current provincial standards and none fully meet or exceed the standards.”

Salt marshes remain an often-underrated ecosystem, even though they have a role to play in mitigating the impacts of sea level rise, which the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicts will likely exceed one metre globally by 2100 (though predictions vary). 

Over the next three decades, sediment will slowly be deposited in the salt marsh in Boundary Bay to turn it into a living dike. Photo: City of Surrey

Balke said these marshes are “arguably the most important ecosystems in B.C.” since they support millions of migratory birds and provide critical habitat for juvenile salmon on their journey from the Fraser River to the ocean. 

The marshes provide space for salmon to grow, eat, rest and adapt to saltwater life. When the tide is high, the marshes are filled with invertebrates for salmon to feed on. When the tide goes out, the sand is picked over by small mammals and birds hunting for molluscs. 

Boundary Bay is home to a salt marsh that’s at the heart of an ambitious plan to protect nearby communities from sea level rise. Photo: City of Surrey

A eagle flies over the water near Boundary Bay, a 250-kilometre stretch of seashore that provides important habitat to bird species. Photo: City of Surrey

The rich soils support microbial life and can absorb as much atmospheric carbon per unit area as soils in tropical rainforests. 

Human-made infrastructure gets in the way of salt marshes doing their job. For instance, jetties and dikes disrupt natural sediment deposit processes and restrict salmon movement. 

Concrete versus natural infrastructure

Sumas Lake in Abbotsford once absorbed freshet from the Fraser River in the spring, mitigating flooding. But settlers disliked the mosquitos and drained the lake in 1924, building an artificial canal and pump station to control water flow. 

Murray Ned, councillor for Semá:th (Sumas) First Nation, said the lake was their “livelihood” and was home to salmon, wolves and elk.

“It was probably the biggest impact on our community at the time, and even today, because we now no longer have that resource at our front door, so to speak,” said Ned, whose ancestral name is Kwilosintun. 

The living dike provides an opportunity to return to a more harmonious approach to working with nature as communities adapt to climate change, said Deborah Carlson, a staff lawyer at West Coast Environmental Law, who is also part of the living dike roundtable.

“It’s having a relationship with that coastal ecosystem,” she said. “A relationship that acknowledges that salt marsh is taking care of us, and [we’re] taking care of it.”

She said it can be complicated to experiment in areas with “complex, overlapping jurisdictions” like Boundary Bay but collaborative projects like this will be needed to adapt to climate change. 

Semá:th (Sumas) First Nation Councillor Murray Ned said it’s imperative that First Nations work with all levels of government on flood mitigation. Photo: Jennifer Osborne / The Narwhal

Juvenile fish swim in an Abbotsford waterway during an interview with Semá:th (Sumas) First Nation Councillor Murray Ned. Photo: Jennifer Osborne / The Narwhal

Matt Osler, Surrey’s program manager for disaster mitigation, agreed.

“Flooding doesn’t get held back by jurisdictional boundaries,” he told The Narwhal. 

Compared to all the dikes, jetties and pump stations, Osler said the living dike will be more “adaptable and resilient” — able to migrate or grow. He has high hopes for what this project could mean for the communities involved.

“We know we just have to try it and see if it works,” he said. “Maybe with climate change, we have to do things differently. We at least have to be asking the question of how we can do it differently.”

The Semiahmoo First Nation was not available for comment before publication.

A butterfly in the wild grasses along the Boundary Bay dike. Photo: Jennifer Osborne / The Narwhal

Boundary Bay marsh in a part of the coastal wetlands that are flooded and drained by salt water. Photo: Jennifer Osborne / The Narwhal

Horseback riders enjoy the Boundary Bay Dike Trail on May 18, 2020 in the territory of the Semiahmoo First Nation. Photo: Jennifer Osborne / The Narwhal

Climate change adaptation must be ‘collaborative effort’ with First Nations

The living dike project also provides an example of working in equal partnership with First Nations on flood management instead of working around them, Ned said.

In 2014, the City of Abbotsford undertook emergency flood work without consulting the First Nation and destroyed a Semá:th fishing site in the process. Last year, Abbotsford and the province signed a memorandum of understanding with the Semá:th agreeing to consult with the nation on flood response from now on.

“That was a major crisis in our community, the loss of that fishing site,” Ned said.

In addition to being on council for the Semá:th First Nation, Ned is part of the Emergency Planning Secretariat, an Indigenous organization that works with First Nations to help them build capacity to respond to floods. The secretariat wants to facilitate a coordinated flood management strategy across Coast Salish communities along the Fraser River. The secretariat is also participating in discussions around the living dike.

The Serpentine Fen is a part of the larger wetland supported by a system of dikes in the Fraser estuary and is protected as a nature reserve. Photo: Jennifer Osborne / The Narwhal

Agricultural land adjacent to the Serpentine Fen. Photo: Jennifer Osborne / The Narwhal

He said it’s integral for First Nations to work on equal footing with other jurisdictions.

“This work we’re talking about can’t be done solely by First Nations or solely by the provincial or federal governments,” Ned said. “It has to be a collaborative effort.”

First Nations are often in low-lying areas at risk of floods and have little protection, largely due to colonization. 

“When the Indian Act came into effect and constrained them to these small areas, they happened to be at their fish camps at the time, so that’s why a lot of reserves are near the river,” said Gillian Fuss, project coordinator for the secretariat. 

First Nations are at risk of losing fishing sites, cultural sites and graveyards to flooding. But band councils are often too overstretched to have an employee dedicated to emergency planning. The secretariat works with First Nations to increase that capacity.

Tyrone McNeil is also on the secretariat and is vice-president of the Stó:lō Tribal Council. He said his community, the Seabird Island Band, has lost 600 hectares of land to erosion and has been struggling to build up infrastructure that also protects salmon habitat. 

Boundary Bay’s West Dike Trail is home to a large marsh area. Photo: Jennifer Osborne / The Narwhal

A duck takes off in the wetland of Beach Grove, an important part of the Fraser estuary marsh system. Photo: Jennifer Osborne / The Narwhal

He said planning is much more difficult due to climate change.

“Say, 40 years ago, we had a pretty good idea of what to expect for freshet,” he said. “Now, with climate change, you can take every predictive modelling and toss it out.”

Richmond’s West Dike Trail looking toward the Fraser River and, beyond that, the North Shore mountains. Photo: Jennifer Osborne / The Narwhal

McNeil wants to prepare for a two-metre sea level rise.

He said another challenge that hasn’t been talked about enough is the probability of needing to move reserves to higher elevations due to flooding and sea level rise, something that would take years to complete. He said this will also take collaboration between First Nations and federal and provincial governments to find new reserves and start building as soon as 2040.

“[First Nations] need that long-term planning ability. We’re at the earliest stages of developing that,” he said.

Without that capacity, “We’re going to be losing a whole lot more land,” he warned.

And the solution for that, without major impacts on the ecosystem, won’t be found in concrete.

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Gravel-bed rivers and their floodplains are the lifeblood of ecosystems and need to be allowed to run and flood unimpeded if species are to be protected and communities are to cope with climate change, a ground-breaking scientific study has found.

The broad valleys formed by rivers flowing from glaciated mountains, such as those found throughout B.C. and Alberta, are some of the most ecologically important habitats in North America, according to the team of scientists who have done the first extensive study of the full range of species that rely on gravel-bed rivers, ranging from microbes to bears. The paper was published online Friday in Science Advances.

In the region that stretches from Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming to the northern Yukon, gravel-bed river flood plains support more than half the plant life. About 70 per cent of the area’s bird species use the floodplain, while deer, elk, caribou, wolves and grizzly bears use the plains for food, habitat and as important migration corridors.

While everyone knows that fish rely on rivers, the scientists found that species such as cottonwood trees need the river flood to reproduce and the ever-changing landscape of changing channels and shifting gravel and rocks supports a complex food web.

Gravel-bed rivers are much more than water flowing through the channel, said lead author Ric Hauer, director of the University of Montana’s Center for Integrated research on the Environment.

“The river flows over and through the entire floodplain system, from valley wall to valley wall, and supports an extraordinary diversity of life. The river is so much bigger than it appears to be at first glance,” he said.

But the floodplains are endangered worldwide as the flat, productive valleys are attractive for agriculture, roads or houses and it is time to look at gravel bed rivers with new eyes, said Harvey Locke, co-founder of the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative and one of the study’s authors.

“A wild and free river drives the life support system across the whole landscape and we need to keep them happy,” Locke said in an interview with DeSmog Canada.

“We need to let them be rivers and run free and do our development respecting that need instead of trying to control them.”

That means not building dams or levees that prevent essential flooding, Locke said.

“Flooding is critical to the health of the riparian system and, by extension, organisms across the whole landscape and, when you put in a dam for climate change mitigation you are killing that process. It’s a catastrophe not only for the immediate ecological effects, but it also puts a huge barrier to connectivity so species cannot go up the river to adapt to climate change,” Locke said.

Hydro dams are often touted as green energy, but, in reality they are a huge problem, not a solution to climate change, he said.

Locke emphasized that the scientific study does not look at the controversy behind individual projects such as the planned Site C dam in northeastern B.C., but said he personally regards Site C as a prime example of the problem.

Existing dams on the Peace River have already had a devastating effect downstream, he said.

“And the horror of wrecking more of that beautiful river valley around Fort St. John is an example of not thinking clearly. It’s very bad for the resilience of the landscape,” he said.

Gravel-bed rivers are found mainly in the western U.S. and Canada — and include major rivers such as the Columbia, Fraser, Flathead, Mackenzie and Yukon — and every part of B.C is affected by them, said Locke, who is hoping the scientific paper will attract the attention of groups such as planners and politicians who make development decisions.

“The really big point is that gravel-bed river systems are the heart of the whole landscape and you don’t want to clog the arteries attached to the heart, which is what a dam does,” he said.

Even in protected areas such as Yellowstone and Banff national parks, humans have altered the floodplains, the scientists found.

Hauer said the increasing pressures of climate change mean that species need access to intact gravel-bed ecosystems in order to survive.

“These systems must be protected and those that are already degraded must be restored,” he said.

Biologist and grizzly bear expert Michael Proctor, of Birchdale Ecological, one of the report’s authors, said the research highlighted how river systems are a focus of regional connectivity, not only for grizzly bears, but for all species.

“This paper helped me realize the amazing significance of gravel bed river systems, not just river valleys, as an ecological focus and arena of so much biodiversity and ecological processes,” Proctor said.

“It’s like the narrow pinch point in an hour-glass of influence. Everything is influenced by that pinch point.”

Human settlement and activities in those river valleys and floodplains reduces their biodiversity and significance, Proctor said.

“We need to leave and even restore some portions of these river systems to more of a natural condition,” he said.

Photo: Flathead River by Harvey Locke

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Mel Arnold, a federal Conservative candidate from the North Okanagan-Shuswap riding in B.C., told the CBC he remains “unconvinced” by climate science and that the role of human activity in the rise of global temperatures remains undetermined.

In an interview with the CBC’s Daybreak South radio show this week, Arnold told host Chris Walker he believes only 1.5 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions are human-caused.

Arnold also said cycles in climate could be responsible for recent changes in temperature.

"I don't know that it has been determined for sure that human activity is the main cause. It is part of the process," he told Walker. “But how much of it is actually naturally occurring, that's I think where the debate is."

"As you know, this area was once buried in kilometres of thick ice during the ice ages. And we have approximately 30-year cycles on weather conditions here. Those types of things are still in play."

Cindy Derkaz, federal Liberal candidate from the North Okanagan-Shuswap riding, said Arnold was simply toeing the Conservative Party line.

“I wasn’t surprised,” Derkaz said. “I feel that he is following a party line and bound to do that and I’ve noticed that there’s been no rebuttal of [Arnold’s statements] from the party.”

Derkaz said the science of climate change, including the role of human activity, is “unequivocal” and that constituents in her region are already feeling the effects of warmer global temperatures.

“We are experiencing some of the hottest years on record one after another. We are experiencing serious forest fire seasons, problems with our water supply drying up which leads to a diminished flow in rivers which negatively affects the return of fish.”

“These are all problems we are dealing with.”

NDP candidate Jacqui Gingras said Arnold is “actively denying climate change” and it is “outrageous and dangerous to hold the view” that humans are not contributing to increasing temperatures.

“We’ve been measuring climate change for 150 years and have been able to reconstruct climate going back 8,000 years,” Gingras said. “Thirteen of the 15 warmest years on record have occurred since 2000.”

Gingras said that researchers from Climate Central calculate that the odds of climate change not being attributable to human activity is one in 27 million.

Gingras said Arnold is apparently willing to bet against those odds.

“To the south of us in Kelowna there were terrible fires this year that had enormous costs on people's lives,” she said. “Our local industry, the forestry industry, relies on those trees.”

“We’re on the brink of something traumatic, not only locally, but globally there’s a crisis building.”

Wildfires and trees were also present on the mind of federal Green Party candidate Chris George.

“These fires have been a big issue,” George said. “All of the surrounding forests are vulnerable to beetle kill because winters don’t get cold enough to kill the insects off which means that more dry standing forests and they are more vulnerable to wildfire.”

George added that before this season’s wildfires, heavy rainfall caused mudslides in the Shuswap region.

“We basically lost our tourism season. The mudslides wiped out roads, filed our lakes and streams with mud and shut down houseboat operators.”

George said the increased intensity and frequency of both drought and heavy rainfall are “easily linked to climate change.” Both tourism and agriculture, which the area depends upon, are being “disproportionally hit” by the effects of warmer temperatures, he said.

George added he’s surprised to hear any candidates would question the impacts of human activity on the climate. “I was a bit astonished that that’s still a position out there.”

According to Environment Canada, greenhouse gasses are released into the atmosphere as a result of transportation, oil and gas development, the production of electricity, energy use in buildings, industrial and trade activities, agriculture and the production of waste.  

Andrew Weaver, climate scientists and MLA for the B.C. Green Party said the comments are “outrageous” but he is “not surprised” to hear them coming from a representative of Conservative Party.

“This is common within the Harper Tories to find people whose views are based on… I don’t know where they get their views from, but they’re not scientific,” Weaver said.

He added the statements point to the larger problem of scientific literacy in political decision-making.

“If you make decisions as a matter of faith — ‘I believe this to be true’ — it’s the beginning of the downfall of society.”

Campaign manager Linda Hawkes said Arnold was unavailable for comment.

Image: Mel Arnold via Twitter

The Narwhal’s reporters are telling environment stories you won’t read about anywhere else. Stay in the loop by signing up for our free weekly dose of independent journalism.

On Friday the Energy Resources Conservation Board (ERCB), the Alberta government's industry regulator, released a report stating that tar sands companies have failed to comply with pre-existing agreements to limit the amount of water used in tar sands extraction and processing as well as the amount of polluted water that ends up in the region's growing toxic tailings ponds.

The release of the report coincides with massive floods near Fort McMurray, wreaking havoc on the city's infrastructure. Since Friday the region has seen between 80 and 180mm of precipitation. Major highways have been closed, roads have been partially washed out, buildings flooded and homes evacuated. The city of Fort McMurray officially declared a state of emergency today, while unseasonably high temperatures prompt snow melt and rain is forecast to continue throughout the week.

The immediate question is apparent: what threat does the flooding pose to the massive tailings ponds lining the Athabasca River and the millions of litres of toxic contaminants they contain?

According to recent industry figures, tailings ponds, which hold the billions of litres of contaminated waste water used in bitumen extraction and processing, cover 176 square kilometres of the tar sands region. 

Numerous tar sands projects line the Athabasca River and tailings ponds – represented here as "pit lakes" – border the river's banks. (This project map is from the Cumulative Environment Management Association's "End Pit Lakes Guidance Document," a report that outlines an industry plan to convert the waste ponds into a recreational 'lake district.')

This morning Alberta Emergency Alert released a flood warning that announced areas adjacent to the Hangingstone River, a tributary of the Clearwater River which feeds directly into the Athabasca River, were flooded and experiencing bank erosion. The flooding has been gradually moving north toward the highly populated areas of Fort McMurray and in the direction of major tar sands developments.

The water's migration north and throughout the floodplains nearing the Athabasca River have some worried the waters may breach the various processing plants, upgrading facilities and tailings ponds throughout the region.

Jesse Cardinal from the Keepers of the Athabasca said today, "We are definitely concerned about the flooding…"

"[These] are the highest ever recorded amounts [for water levels] and Fort McMurray is on a boil water advisory…What are the downstream effects?"

A recent study released by Environment Canada states that pollution from the tar sands has affected the water in areas as far away as 100 km from Fort McMurray. Tar sands related toxins, including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), are known to be fatal to young fish during the developmental stage.

In February, internal government documents released through Access to Information legislation confirmed tailings ponds were leaking into local groundwater. Further concerns about contamination are growing with the rising river levels.

This morning Suncor Energy, a major tar sands company, announced via facebook that a road near its MacKay River in situ project had suffered damage from the heavy rains, saying employees were being advised to ration water until transport plans could be addressed. Another of Suncor's facilities, pictured below, lies on the banks of the Athabasca River, with tailings ponds and other water-holding facilities separated from the rising river by narrow berms.

Photo by Chris Evans at The Pembina Institute. 

Photo by David Dodge at The Pembina Institute.

"Not all of them would be defined as tailings ponds," said Suncor spokeswoman Kelli Stevens over the phone, "it would depend what sorts of water is in them." She could not comment on what specifically the ponds next to the Athabasca River contain.

"We're not at all new to operating in the area. We know spring runoff makes water levels rise. We are at the site constantly and monitoring for anything that isn't part of normal operations and that would obviously include anything that had to do with water from the site touching the river. That's something we would try to stay away from at all costs." 

The Athabasca River is currently on a high-stream flow advisory. 

The Deputy Fire Chief for the Wood Buffalo region said the Hangingstone River is higher than it has been in over a century.

"As part of our operations, we are required to keep all ponds below certain levels to ensure our ponds remain contained in these kinds of situations. We have been following that regulation, and are constantly monitoring the situation, but do not have reason for concern at this time," Suncor spokeswoman Stevens later wrote to DeSmog Canada.

The rising flood waters may pose an unprecedented threat to the region's growing tailings ponds, a number of which are located directly along the banks of the Athabasca River.

A Google Earth image, pictured right, shows the Athabasca River winding through the tar sands region and past the Suncor refining plant. The image shows the proximity of numerous tailings ponds to the river's edge.

The Alberta Environment and Sustainable Resource Development (ESRD) flood mapping tool shows the floodways surrounding Fort McMurray.

Already low-lying areas surrounding the river are suffering significant flooding.

Image from: pic.twitter.com/Jv01jj7X2W

Video from teambatesy via youtube.

Weather reports for Fort McMurray forecast rain for several more days.

The Narwhal’s reporters are telling environment stories you won’t read about anywhere else. Stay in the loop by signing up for our free weekly dose of independent journalism.