A new dimension to defence needs

Climate change threatens Canada’s safety. Kristin Colwell via getty images

Climate change will create new security challenges and magnify existing ones in Canada and around the world, according to a comprehensive defence review published by the government last year.

“Climate change is having devastating impacts on Canadians from coast to coast to coast every year, as climate-related emergencies increase in frequency and scale,” the review stated. “The Canadian Armed Forces, including our Regular and Reserve Forces and the Canadian Rangers, is helping meet a growing need to support civil authorities in natural disaster response, both at home and abroad, and will continue to respond to calls for help.

And with the summer wildfire season now underway, firefighting agencies across the country are hoping that early forecasts by Natural Resources Canada of “above average” fire activity across most of the country do not escalate to the level of the historically high 2023 season when more than 230,000 persons were evacuated because of potential dangers to life and health and 6,623 wildland fires burned more than 15 million hectares of Canada’s managed forests.

In 2023, Canada had its worst fire season in 30 years, requiring evacuations in communities across the country and the deployment of more than 2,100 armed forces members to six provinces and territories for more than four months to assist.

The impacts on the North were devastating, requiring the entire city of Yellowknife to evacuate and affecting many Indigenous communities. Since 2010, Canadian Armed Forces operations in response to natural disasters have roughly doubled every five years, according to the defence review.

“Although climate change is a global problem, it is having particularly serious effects on our arctic and northern regions, presenting new and escalating challenges with a range of implications for Canada’s security,” the review stated.

With Canada’s Arctic warming at four times the global average, the region is becoming more accessible to foreign powers who have growing capabilities and regional military ambitions, according to the review.

“Defending the Arctic is asserting Canadian sovereignty,” the review stated. “To do so, we must take a new approach that improves and modernizes our defences in the region.”

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