Housing, Homelessness & Migration
The World Bank predicts 216 million people will be forced to migrate within their own countries by 2050 because of rising sea levels, water scarcity and declining food crops caused by global warming.
Human life exists in a climate niche temperature range (11 to 15 degrees Celsius), with the bulk of humanity centered around the equator. As temperatures rise, this livable niche is migrating northward at a pace of 1.15 metres a day, and much faster in some places. One to three billion people will soon be outside the optimal climate conditions that have allowed our survival for the past 6,000 years.
Climate migration within Canada includes people who are displaced by wildfires or floods, plus those who move away from disaster prone regions. Hundreds of thousands of Canadians were displaced by wildfire in summer 2023, tens of thousands of them Indigenous.
In Atlantic Canada sea level rise and coastal erosion is a threat. One Mi’kmaq community is already looking to relocate. Fishing communities are affected by rising and heating oceans, and kelp beds off the Nova Scotia coast are nearly gone, decimating the fish habitats.
Roads and houses along the Gaspe Peninsula in Quebec are being lost due to coastal erosion and extreme weather.
Drought in the prairie provinces is challenging the farmers in our Canadian Heartland. This region is seeing a longer growing season and warmer temperatures, but threats of water scarcity. Areas in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia, Yukon, Ontario and the Northwest Territories are at risk of drying out.
Canada’s far north is affected by disrupted seasonal ice roads that bring critical supplies.
Melting permafrost causes collapsing landscapes that disrupts land use, transportation, food production, human and animal habitat.
Certain Canadian cities are more in jeopardy from climate change. Toronto is expected to see an average temperature rise of 3.02°C by 2050. Montreal, Ottawa and Calgary are also considered vulnerable cities.
Everyone is at risk of heat-related illnesses when temperatures are extreme, but most vulnerable are Canada’s homeless and people in low-income housing who lack ways to stay cool. British Columbia experienced a deadly heat wave in June 2021 that killed over 600 people - a high proportion in low income housing, over age 60, with chronic disease or mental health diagnoses.
When roads and bridges go down, electricity, transportation and communication systems are affected. House and property insurance is no longer an option in areas of North America hit hardest by sea level rise, wildfire and flood disasters.
All these climate impacts are anticipated to increase based on scientific research and predictions. Efforts to mitigate climate change now are crucial to minimize its effects on Canada and the world.
Building and renovating homes to safeguard against flooding, heat and wildfires is more important than ever. Included in this section are tips and strategies to reduce your home and community risks from increasing natural disasters. The global effort to greening cities is already showing reduced inner city temperatures and improved liveable urban spaces.
Preparing for Natural Disasters
Canada's (The World's) Changing Climate
- Weather, climate and hazards - Canada.ca
- Climate change and health | Canadian Climate Institute
- Too Hot to Handle: How Climate Change May Make Some Places Too Hot to Live - NASA Science
- Canada’s Changing Climate Report
- Canada’s Changing Climate Report - Canada.ca
- Heat waves and extreme heat in Canada | Canadian Climate Institute