Majority of Canadians believe severe weather will get worse, but few taking precautionary measures

While the majority of Canadians say they think climate change will cause severe weather to occur more frequently, few are taking measures to protect their homes from extreme events, according to a new study released Wednesday by RBC.

Based on the company’s annual Water Attitude Study, which polled just over 2,000 Canadians earlier this year, 74% of Canadians agree that climate change will cause more frequent extreme weather events.

However, only 23% said they were concerned about extreme weather causing droughts or flooding, and only 9% have taken precautionary measures to protect themselves and their homes from the effects of extreme weather events, according to RBC.

In general, people do perceive floods to be more prevalent in Canada than a decade ago, and 21% said they live in an area vulnerable to flooding, RBC noted.

But more than half of Canadians still prefer paved driveways, and even when presented with facts about gravel and interlocking stones helping to prevent flooding, 55% still said they wouldn’t change their mind about pavement.

“There’s no question that 2013 was the ‘year of the urban flood’ for Canadians,” Bob Sandford, chair of the Canadian Partnership Initiative of the UN Water for Life Decade noted in a press release.

“Extreme floods like the ones we saw in Calgary and Toronto weren’t a matter of ‘if’, they were simply a matter of ‘when’. So this level of inactivity on the part of Canadians is concerning. You wouldn’t go out in a rainstorm without an umbrella. Why wouldn’t you try to safeguard your home from the weather, too?”

RBC’s survey also included 134 stakeholders from government, business, NGOs and academia.

Based on that poll, 77% of Canadian water experts believe the state of storm water management systems in their region is a serious issue, but only 21% of the general public believes that major investments in storm water management are necessary, RBC said.

Additionally, only 10% of Canadians believe that the greatest water problem 10 years from now will be the state of systems to help deal with excess storm water from rain or snow, according to RBC’s poll.

“This lack of public awareness makes it very difficult for municipalities to explain why investments in infrastructure are so urgent,” Sandford noted.

“The right infrastructure is our most critical defense against flooding. If we don’t apply the resources necessary to improve our storm water management systems, our towns and cities could suffer the consequences for years to come.”