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Is Quebec Premier François Legault’s offer to pay homeowners $200,000 to abandon their flood-prone houses an example of government largesse, or an unjust drop in the bucket for residents whose homes were once worth far more?

The answer is complex, because when it comes to building homes on flood plains, there are several players who may share the blame, including the federal, provincial and municipal governments, the homeowners, and a capricious global weather system.

A motto for the prepared home owner: Water is coming.

Apologies for jumping aboard the Game of Thrones trend – “Winter is coming” is the motto of a dynastic family in the book and TV series. But there is no overdramatizing water’s malevolent force when you own a house with a basement.

Jason Thistlethwaite, professor in the School of Environment, Enterprise and Development at the University of Waterloo, said Quebecers can expect flooding to get worse because climate change is making winter temperatures more volatile.

With the right information and often for less than $250, homeowners can protect themselves from the increasing risks of basement floods, according to a report from the University of Waterloo.

Water Institute member Blair Feltmate, professor in Waterloo's School of Environment, Enterprise and Development and the head of the Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation at the University of Waterloo, is part of a new Pan-Canadian Expert Collaboration team on climate change, green energy, and adaptation. 

Authored by: Water Institute member, Fereidoun Rezanezhad, Assistant Professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Waterloo and Principal Investigator in the Global Water Futures project, Winter Soil Processes in Transition.

Water Institute member Blair Feltmate points to the study's predictions for quadrupling of flooding along the Halifax waterfront as sea levels rise 20 centimetres over current levels by mid century.

Feltmate, head of the Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation at the University of Waterloo, said in an interview Friday that projections of 75 centimetres to one metre of relative sea level rise for the East Coast by the end of the century are “a wake up call and a call to arms.”

Professor Janusz Pawliszyn, Professor Mark Servos

The University of Waterloo has been recognized for its social and economic impact related to its United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) commitments.