Mitzie Hunter announces three-point climate resilience plan

Mayoral candidate’s approach tackles residential flooding, extreme heat

Toronto – Mitzie Hunter, candidate for mayor, has issued a three-point plan to mitigate the risks of severe and dangerous weather caused by climate change, focused on residential basement flooding and extreme heat.

Hunter’s three-point plan, which potentially saves lives and prevents millions of dollars in damages, includes:

• Residential Flood Protection Program: Protecting homeowners and thousands of Torontonians living in basement apartments.

• Extreme Heat Protection Program: Enhancing protections for the vulnerable, including seniors, lower-income people and those with at-risk health conditions.

• Create the position of Chief Resiliency Officer: Appointing an official who understands the risks of severe weather such as flooding, extreme heat, ice loading, and extreme wind and advises on mitigation strategies.

“Climate change is real and its effects will continue to get worse. That’s why we must do everything possible to limit greenhouse gas emissions contributing to climate change,” says Hunter. “At the same time, the most immediate effect of climate change is severe and dangerous weather and, for Toronto, the biggest risk for people is residential basement flooding and extreme heat.”

Flooding: Thousands of Torontonians live in basement apartments, some of which are illegal. The average clean-up cost of a flooded basement is $43,000. In the wake of catastrophic flooding, property values can be depressed by more than eight percent.

Heat: Extreme heat can cause risk of death especially for seniors, lower income and vulnerable people. For example, 619 people died in British Columbia’s 2021 extreme heatwave and 86 people died in Quebec’s 2018 extreme heatwave.

“Severe and dangerous weather used to be 100-year events but now, with climate change, we are at risk of extreme weather more frequently, making our city vulnerable,” says Hunter. “We need to take action now, before a catastrophe strikes. These are the steps I will take, if elected mayor, to protect the people of Toronto.”

Here’s how Hunter’s three-point climate risk reduction plan works:

Residential Flood Protection Program: Educate homeowners twice a year, in spring and fall, on ways to protect residential flooding. The University of Waterloo’s Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation found that 70 per cent of homeowners will take at least two steps to protect themselves resulting from such a campaign. An existing basement flooding subsidy program offering $3,400 per homeowner will be enhanced by making it better known and easier to access by property owners. As demand for the program increases, will ensure it is fully-funded, as protection is less costly than recovery.

• Extreme Heat Protection Program: Hunter views access to cooling as a fundamental human right. Her plan includes two practical actions to reduce risk of death of our seniors and those most vulnerable to extreme heat.

• Extreme Heat Preparedness Program.  Helping the most vulnerable people in Toronto - seniors, those living alone, those with pre-existing health conditions, those who are financially challenged –  by expanding and enhancing regular checks done during heat waves, to ensure they are hydrated, have access to a fan or an air conditioning unit, and if needed that they have access to cooling centres. 

• Increase Neighbourhood Shade Tree Program. To give Torontonians respite from extreme heat, and to lower the impacts of the “heat island effect”, boost Toronto’s shade tree canopy through tree planting throughout the city, starting with lower-income areas where there is currently very limited shade coverage.

• Create the Position of Chief Resiliency Officer (CRO):  Toronto needs a permanent/full-time chief resiliency officer, who understands extreme weather risks impacting Toronto and who coordinates efforts to ensure that Toronto is prepared for extreme weather events going forward.  Toronto formerly had a CRO, supported through the Rockefeller Foundation, but the position was not funded by the city after the Rockefeller funding ran out. Hunter would bring back the position, making it permanent.