Municipal finances feeling the impact of climate change

As inflation continues to eat away at government revenues, municipalities are increasingly being battered by historic weather events and are warning that they are unable to absorb the growing costs.

Towns and cities continue to see their budgets squeezed by climate change amid historic fires, floods, heat and ice storms.

Municipal officials say that they will soon need to go to provincial and federal governments for aid in meeting the demands of guarding against storms and cleaning up the aftermath.

“Municipalities of all sizes across the country, we’re seeing the amount of damage — it’s unbelievable,” said  Scott Pearce, who is mayor of the Quebec town of Gore and president of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities.

Provincial and federal governments must invest more, he said. “We’re seeing more and more damage year by year.”

Among the cities where severe weather has threatened balanced budgets are Ottawa, Montreal and Regina.

READ MORE: Ontario summer storm insured damages estimated at $340M: IBC

Ottawa city officials warned in September that the city was on track to finish the year in a deficit after it blew through its public works budget in the fallout of snow and freezing rain spells at the start of the year that were “substantially higher” than previous five-year averages.

Investments could help to save towns and cities from exploding costs as weather worsens, Pearce says.

“”We’re better to invest now to protect against this because otherwise we’re just throwing money away. It’s a lot cheaper to buy Flintstone chewable vitamins than pay for your penicillin after you’re sick.”

This report was created with files from The Canadian Press