Today in the legislature the premier rose to offer a Ministerial Statement on the flooding in the Boundary Similkameen area. As is normal practice, the leader of the official opposition and I were also granted an opportunity to respond. Below I reproduce the text and video of my response.

Unfortunately, I was cut short by the speaker. And so, I also append the ending of my speech that I never got to say.

Text of Speech

A. Weaver: Like every member in this House, I’ve been following the flood crisis closely and with a heavy heart. I commend the Premier for offering disaster recovery assistance today. Every support possible must be extended to the communities threatened by rising rivers. It’s heartbreaking to see homes submerged and businesses lost. I hope the worst is behind us. Sadly and unfortunately, the forecast for the coming days is not looking so positive.

I’d like to also extend my gratitude to the first responders and emergency support providers who are helping people evacuate safely and making sure that nobody is left behind. The National on CBC last night had footage of firefighters swimming through polluted waters to reach houses in Grand Forks. Our province could not weather these emergencies without their bravery and determination, and I offer my sincere thanks.

It seems cruel and unusual to be facing more devastation after last year’s floods and fires. The 2017 fire season, as we know too well, was the longest in the province’s history. We had a state of emergency in place for ten weeks, and more than 65,000 residents were evacuated. The flood response cost more than $73 million, and direct fire suppression cost more than $568 million.

Incredibly, thanks to the hard work by so many volunteers, there were no fatalities despite the 1,342 fires. The strength, courage and resiliency of British Columbians are unmatched and unrivalled. Those qualities paired with a world-class team of firefighters and first responders is why we made it through last year’s floods and fires without a single life lost in British Columbia — especially those in rural areas who have been fighting the front lines of climate change for so long.

It’s cruel to be facing more flooding after last year’s natural disasters, but sadly, it’s no longer unusual. And there is so much more to come as a consequence of global warming. It’s going to get much, much worse if we, as elected officials, fail to transition to a low-carbon economy.

I had an elderly gentleman in my office last week from a riding hit hard by the 2017 fire season. He talked about staying up all night to watch the fire move across nearby hills, going out to hose down his house with his son, checking on his neighbours to make sure they were okay too.

He talked about having post-traumatic stress disorder, but also he talked about having what he called pre-traumatic stress disorder, as the fire season for 2018 approaches. He doesn’t look forward to summer anymore. He said he’s too worried about fires.

The irony and the illustrative cognitive dissonance is that that afternoon, his MLA stood in this House to speak in support of Kinder Morgan and the LNG development.

We as elected officials cannot let British Columbians fight climate change alone. We need to be there when disaster strikes — like this week in the southern Interior — but we also need to be here with the will to recognize the link between the laws we pass or protect and the climate change impacts felt by our constituents. The world has no time for politicians who show up to help sandbag one day, but work to prevent meaningful climate action the next.

As the B.C. Auditor General wrote…

Mr. Speaker: Thank you, Member.

The ending I didn’t get to say

As the BC Auditor General wrote in her February 2018 report, Managing Climate Change Risks, from 1900 to 2013, BC’s average temperature has increased faster than the global average.

Scientists, including myself, projected that the province will face increases in extreme weather, rising sea levels, increasing risk of wildfire and flooding, as well as widespread loss of biodiversity and extinction of species.

Recognizing the linkages between and among these extreme weather events, and the impact of global warming is critical to any real progress going forward.

As early as 2004, a postdoc and I published a paper in Geophysical Research Letters pointing out that we can now detect and attributing the increase area of Canadian Forest fires to global warming. In 2000 a student and I showed the Canadian precipitation record exhibited significant increases in extreme events. More recently these changes have been attributed to global warming. The list goes on.

British Columbians are working tirelessly to fight the effects of climate change. I vow to do the same from this chamber.

Video of Speech