By Randall Denley, Ottawa Citizen, April 30, 2019
It was great to see our top federal and provincial political leaders trekking out to Constance Bay to express their concern about the devastating effects of the flooding. It would be much more valuable for them to work together to protect our city, our province and our country from future floods.
As this year’s floods show, the effects of the high water go far beyond affecting relatively small numbers of people who live beside rivers, although that is significant in itself. When water is so high that it closes down one of Ottawa’s major bridges and threatens a drinking water plant that provides half of our water, it’s not enough to talk about relocating residents of low-lying regions. And Ottawa isn’t even the worst-hit area.
We need a serious climate adaptation plan and the money to pay for it. Such a plan is within our grasp, if only we could get Liberal and Conservative politicians to stop thinking of climate change as an election wedge issue and grasp the fact that it affects real people’s lives.
https://ottawacitizen.com/opinion/columnists/denley-one-lesson-from-the-floods-liberals-and-tories-must-work-together-on-climate-change