An expert panel has identified a dozen ways that climate change in Canada could lead to “significant losses, damages, or disruptions” over the next 20 years.

The Council of Canadian Academies deems urban flood damage, coastal erosion, northern communities, natural habitats and fisheries as the areas most at-risk. It also suggests what climate-change adaptions the federal government should prioritize before the worst-case scenarios become reality.

The 70-page report is intended to help federal officials work with lower-level governments and citizens to mitigate the impact of weather extremes. Canadians have already seen an increase in urban flooding in Toronto, the melting of permafrost and sea ice in the north, rising oceans on the coasts and raging wildfires in the west.

The report, called Canada’s Top Climate Change Risks, also suggests ways the Canadian government can protect its vulnerable property, such as the ports in Vancouver or Halifax that could be impacted by rising sea levels and storm surges.

Released Thursday, the report was commissioned by the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat, which makes recommendations on government spending.

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It gives the government an “outside view on climate-change risks so they could have a better internal understanding as to where the priorities might lie,” said panel chair John Leggat.

“It is an important report for them to try to understand how to get their ducks lined up.”

The Council of Canadian Academies is a not-for-profit organization that does evidence-based assessments on public policy issues in Canada, such as medical assisted suicide, natural resource management and policing in Indigenous communities. The council does not make specific recommendations for government action. In the case of climate change, it was asked to identify priorities for adaptation.

The panel also identified risks to agriculture, forestry, Indigenous ways of life, governance issues such as the ability to provide public services, “geopolitical dynamics” such as international migration or tensions over Arctic sovereignty, and risks to the Canadian water supply from changing precipitation patterns or melting glaciers.

Large urban cities, where 80 per cent of Canadians live, are among the most vulnerable.

Urban risks include flooding from extreme rainfall, heatwaves and even wildfires. These problems can have costly impacts on buildings, transportation systems, power systems, and water and sewer systems, the report said.

“In 2016 alone, the Canadian insurance industry paid 200,000 claims worth a record $4.9 billion for property damage associated with weather related events, including wildfire, flooding, and severe wind,” the panel wrote.

Another high-risk area is Canada’s 243,000 kilometres of coast line, which is populated by roughly 6.5 million people, the report said.

As temperatures are expected to rise faster in the Canadian north, the report details the impact of melting permafrost and disappearing summer sea ice. It threatens the traditions of many northerners, including Indigenous peoples. These changes have led to risks to food and water security. Warming temperatures also threaten northern communities that use roads built on ice.

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“Using semi-permanent trails in Nunavut is becoming more dangerous and less dependable due to changes in snow, ice and precipitation patterns, making it more difficult to predict weather conditions, conduct harvesting activities, or travel,” the report said.

Leggat said all Canadians must realize that adaptation to climate change is inevitable.

“Even if Canada reduces its greenhouse gasses by 100 per cent and we go to net zero emissions, we only produce 1.7 per cent of (all) CO2 emissions,” he said.

“The big (global) emitters may continue to emit and our climate will continue to change. We need to be thinking about where those risks are and how we can adapt. When I say ‘we’ I mean the ‘big we’ from individuals all the way up to the federal government.”

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