Yes, I will.

Caterina is a retired actuary. She has been concerned about climate change for about 30 years.

As an actuary, she joined actuarial committees studying climate change and sustainability. She chaired the committee that created the Actuaries Climate Index in about 2013. The Actuaries Climate Index measures the frequency of climate extremes and shows that these extremes are increasing at an unprecedented rate. She did whatever she could to lower her household emissions, and she wanted to help Canada enact effective climate policies. Thus, she joined Citizens' Climate Lobby in 2013.

Citizens' Climate Lobby is a non-partisan advocacy organization dedicated to promoting effective climate policies. We began in 2010 in Canada.

We have two stories here about precipitation and drought.

In the winter of 2018-19 in Sudbury, Ontario, I experienced record precipitation. Ice built up on the roof of my house. Professionals could not remove it. On the first warm day in spring, in late March 2019, the ice on the front of the roof melted faster than at the back of the house. The roof collapsed internally. Walls pulled away from each other. My house was condemned and we were forced to evacuate. We lived in a hotel for over six months. The entire upper floor had to be reinforced and the roof replaced. We had special insurance and all our costs were covered. Three other houses on our street experienced similar internal structural failures, but not nearly as catastrophic. They are facing huge bills to fix their roofs and houses. I live on a street with just 16 houses.

Last summer, Caterina's son, who lives in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, had to evacuate for three weeks due to forest fires, which were generally unheard of that far north. Since there is only one road out of Yellowknife, he had to drive towards the fire to get south and away from it.

A large contributing factor to the forest fires was climate-related drought. Droughts not only impact farmers and crops; they contribute to forest fires as well. Right now, Canada is experiencing widespread drought ahead of a wildfire season after experiencing a devastating one last year.

Here are some numbers. In Canada in 2023, the insured losses were $3.1 billion. Both economic and insured losses, with the fingerprints of climate change all over them, have increased dramatically over 20 years. Worldwide economic losses of $380 billion U.S. are three times more than the amount of insured losses of $118 billion U.S. In Canada, the economic losses were much more than $3 billion. They were perhaps around $9 billion, if we were to extrapolate.

We have submitted a much longer version of this presentation.

Lastly, we appreciate that Canada is developing a national strategy for drought and flood forecasting.

Thank you.

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