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Franz Hartmann:Yes. As weather people say, it's very difficult to say that a particular event is caused by climate change, but if you look at weather patterns over the last ten years what we see in Canada especially, and here in Toronto in particular, is a dramatic increase in severe weather events in comparison to previous years. What happened on Monday is unprecedented in Toronto's history—we got more rainfall in twenty-four hours than has ever been recorded. It is very difficult not to conclude that this is an example of climate change's effect, and for whatever reason they conclude this is not an effect of climate change we know for a fact that this is what it will look like in the future.You have been quoted as saying that the crumbling Gardiner Expressway in Toronto will seem like a pothole in comparison to the full effects of climate change—what type of weather changes does climate change have in store for us?
There was a report that was presented to a committee of city of Toronto councillors back in January. It was developed by a consulting firm, and essentially they came up with a new model that specifically looked at what Toronto's weather and climate will be like by 2040.
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Exactly. Imagine a major flood happening where we get 160mm of rain in twenty-four hours and then imagine that happens right after two to four days of really hot weather—and the electricity system just goes down. It will create utter chaos in the city, one of the only reasons the city survived the flood that happened on Monday is because we had power, we had power for pumps, we had power for emergency vehicles, and for communications and so forth. If you have a city-wide power outage, that all of a sudden changes everything. That's when you have to start being concerned about deaths.
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Well, the city of Toronto actually published a study back in 2008 called “Ahead of the Storm” that outlines the steps the city should take immediately, and over the long term, to get ready for climate change. That includes not just preparing or adapting the city for it, but also mitigation, things that can help us reduce greenhouse gas emissions today so that whenever climate change does hit us it's not as severe. This report was developed, some of the things were implemented, and staff were assigned to make things happen. Then in the last couple years, because of budget cutbacks, the number of staff that are working on this has been reduced. The amount of money that's been invested in helping us prepare for climate change has been reduced. So we're actually slowing down exactly when we should be speeding up on actions to prepare Toronto for climate change.Mayor Ford said that he felt the city’s response to the emergency situation on Monday was satisfactory, and called for a complete review of how the city handles situations of this nature. What do you think the review will find?
I hope it finds that city staff and public sector workers did the best they could under very difficult circumstances. The cutbacks that have taken place in the last few years in Toronto—not just at the municipal, but provincial and federal levels as well—have severely strained the ability of public servants to do what they need to do. I think there's another piece of the puzzle, and I was a bit disappointed that the Mayor did not mention this in his press conference. It's not just about emergency services being able to respond to these events, it's about what all levels of government can do to help prepare the city, and not just Toronto but cities across the country, so that when these severe weather events happen (be it floods like in Calgary and Toronto or power outages because of high temperatures) that we have the infrastructure in place to withstand those bad storms.
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