Keyword
infrastructure

New money aims to help municipalities boost flood resilience

BRACEBRIDGE, Ont. – Ontario is launching a $1-million pilot project to help communities protect against effects of extreme weather after several in central and eastern parts of the province saw flooding this spring. The government has already activated a disaster…

Feds heed industry’s call for investment in disaster mitigation

The federal government will invest $2 billion over 10 years in projects to help communities better withstand natural hazards such as floods, wildfires, seismic events and droughts. The Disaster Mitigation and Adaptation Fund (DMAF) will support large-scale infrastructure projects with…

IBC welcomes province’s climate change efforts

The Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC) is welcoming the climate change provisions in the Government of Ontario’s newly released Long-Term Infrastructure Plan (LTIP). The provincial government released LTIP on Tuesday. The plan includes investment in public infrastructure, such as hospitals,…

Integrating disaster risk, resilience into broader systems key to unlocking climate adaptation abilities

A systemic disconnect between material natural disaster risk, asset valuation and infrastructure investment demands that disaster risk and resilience be integrated into broader financial, accounting and reporting systems, David Greenall, senior director of sustainable business solutions for PwC Canada, told…

ICLR to host webinar on clean water inflow and infiltration on Sept. 15

The Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction (ICLR) will be hosting a webinar on inflow and infiltration (I/I) on Sept. 15. The webinar, to be held from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. EST, will feature Barbara Robinson from Norton Engineering, who…

Emergency broadcast station being considered in New Brunswick following January ice storm

New Brunswick’s primary electrical utility in the province, NB Power, and the province’s Emergency Measures Organization (EMO) said on Friday that they considering creating a dedicated emergency broadcast station to provide essential information to people in the province in times of crisis. The consideration is one of 51 recommendations contained in a provincial review of the Atlantic Canada storm in the winter of 2017, released on Friday. From Jan. 24-26, an ice storm hit central and eastern New Brunswick, from Miscou Island to Sackville. The intense low-pressure system resulted in…

B.C. and federal governments assessing impact of wildfires on province’s agriculture sector

The governments of British Columbia and Canada have announced that they are working under the federal-provincial AgriRecovery disaster framework to determine the type of assistance that may be required by the province’s agriculture sector to recover from the impact of wildfires. The announcement was made on Wednesday following the first meeting between Lawrence MacAulay, the federal Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, and B.C. Minister of Agriculture Lana Popham.

Government officials are working together to quickly assess the “extraordinary costs” farmers are incurring and what additional assistance may be required to recover and return to production following the wildfires, noted a joint statement from B.C.’s Ministry of Agriculture and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.

B.C. ranchers say costs of wildfires likely top hundreds of millions

KAMLOOPS, B.C. – The British Columbia Cattlemen’s Association says wildfires have inflicted a terrible financial and emotional toll on its members. Association manager Kevin Boon says wildfires that broke out earlier this month in B.C.’s Cariboo and Chilcotin regions are…

Cyber threat landscape growing, potential for emergence of destruction of service attacks: Cisco

The potential for “destruction of service” (DeOS) attacks is greatly concerning and organizations would be well-advised to adopt a proactive cyber stance in their protection efforts to combat increasingly sophisticated attackers, warns a new report from Cisco. “Cyber incidents such…

Applying blockchain technology could slash US$40 billion in costs for financial services: BIS Research

Implementing blockchain technology could produce hefty cost savings in the billions of dollars annually for the financial services market, suggests a new report released Friday by Minnesota-based BIS Research. Characterizing blockchain as a revolutionary development, its application “could lead to…

Worldwide IT spending set to rebound in second half 2017, led by cloud and mobile upgrade cycles: report

Worldwide IT spending is expected to rebound in the second half of the year, led by cloud and mobile upgrade cycles, International Data Corporation (IDC) said in a new report. According to the latest edition of IDC’s Worldwide Black Book,…

Stilling quake risk in eastern Canada demands greater focus, awareness and effort: Swiss Re

Risk awareness is severely lacking and not enough attention is being paid to quake risk in eastern Canada, a region with “huge” loss-inflicting potential that a Swiss Re model projects could produce the country’s largest nat-Cat loss ever if the…