Kristen Villebrun and Wendy Bush hoped they wouldn't have to pray for Chedoke Creek, but four years after they first raised alarm about the water's condition, they were part of an Indigenous full moon ceremony to do just that. About 50 people showed up near Princess Point on the dark and frigid Monday evening for the monthly ceremony, which was particularly special as it focused on Chedoke Creek. The body of water that runs into Cootes Paradise had about 24 billion litres of sewage and storm water runoff leak into it due to a gate being left open.
The Insurance Bureau of Canada estimates the insured damage caused by flooding in British Columbia last month at $450 million, calling it the “most costly severe weather event in the province's history.” However, the overall costs are expected to be much higher since many people affected by the flooding in southwestern B.C. were located in high-risk areas where flood insurance was not available, the bureau said in a news release.
The flooding in southern British Columbia will be the largest natural catastrophic disaster for the insurance industry in 2021, says Marcos Alvarez, DBRS Morningstar’s head of insurance. Insurance companies have not yet been able to provide estimates of what the total cost of damages for the B.C. flooding could tally up to, but Mr. Alvarez said in the past 10 years Canada has had several flood events across the country that each surpassed $1-billion in insurance claims. “Increases in average annual insured weather-related losses are higher in Canada than at the global level,” Mr. Alvarez said. “This is consistent with the notion that the warming of Canada’s climate is happening at about twice the rate of the global average.”
