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There are many angles to the ombudsman’s report. The ombudsman makes it clear that he is not passing judgment on the fundamental accuracy of any of the claims. His issue is with the CBC’s failure to report the other side of the story.

What the CBC news report failed to note, he said, were assessments by Environment Canada that contradict and in fact undermine the Feltmate/IBC claims. According to Xuebin Zhang, a senior research scientist with Environment Canada, there is no increase in extreme flooding and extreme wet weather events. “Annual mean precipitation has increased, on average, in Canada, with a larger per cent increase in northern Canada. For Canada as a whole, observational evidence of changes in extreme precipitation is lacking. However, in the future, extreme precipitation is projected to increase in a warmer climate.”

Zhang is quoted again. In an email to the CBC, he said that “For Canada as a whole, observational evidence of changes in extreme precipitation is lacking.”

But while the CBC’s international arm has had to walk back its reporting, there have so far been no corrections issued by CBC’s The National, which last September broadcast a Feltmate interview and commentary on the insurance industry claims. “Flooding is the number one (insurance) cost in Canada… due to climate change,” Feltmate told the CBC’s flagship news program. “The magnitude of the storms is increasing.”

Nor has there been any word from The Current, the CBC’s national radio show, where Feltmate made similar claims about floods during an interview last June. “The frequency, duration the intensity of storms is much greater today than it was in the past,” Feltmate said.