Caroline and Paul Mosterman have seen their share of unusual weather in four-plus decades of farming. But nothing comes remotely close to what they experienced in November 2021 when their Sumas Prairie farm was inundated by floodwater.
Because the couple farmed on a floodplain, they had no flood insurance. So, when their farm buildings, blueberry plants, nursery, farm machinery and much more were overwhelmed by the rising waters, they took a huge hit.
“It’s going to be years before we recover financially. This has been taxing mentally, emotionally and physically,” Caroline said in an interview nine months after the historic floods.
The shock visited on the Mostermans is part of a much larger story involving the triple assault on British Columbia’s environment and economy from the unprecedented heat dome of June and July 2021, the horrific wildfires that followed and the floods.
The cumulative economic impact of those events has not been properly considered, but should be given that more frequent and extreme weather events will certainly come our way as a result of climate change.
Not only may we experience multiple climate assaults in a single year as we did in 2021, but each of them may amplify the other. Last year’s extreme heat, for example, set the stage for more intense wildfires, which burned so intensely in some watersheds that they altered water flows, thus making the November floods worse.
[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]The triple assault on BC’s environment and economy: the unprecedented heat dome of June & July 2021, the horrific wildfires that followed and the floods.[/perfectpullquote]
Estimating the full cost of a climate catastrophe, let alone multiple catastrophes, is not easy. In the immediate aftermath, the first and often only estimates are of insured damages to property. But insured damages are only the tip of the proverbial iceberg.
Our new research shows that when the broad sweep of non-insured losses is considered along with a number of other factors, the estimated economic hit associated with the 2021 extreme weather events is in the range of $10.6 billion to $17.1 billion.
This gives BC the dubious distinction of having endured the worst climate disaster in Canadian history.
Our research, undertaken in partnership with Vancity, considered damages to assets and property, including non-insured damages to households and businesses.
Our estimate is that the Mostermans were part of a large and unfortunate group whose total non-insured losses from last year’s flooding and landslides ranged from a “low” of $1.6 billion to a high of nearly $5 billion.
We also looked at lost income for workers due to various factors including business closures or curtailments. Some of those losses were due to damaged or destroyed highways or rail lines that severely disrupted supply and distribution networks. Others involved destruction of core assets, for example cherry crops that literally cooked on the trees, and the ripple effect on migrant workers who lost their ability to pick.
Our estimate is that the heat dome took $205 million to $328 million out of peoples’ pockets.
We also considered the heightened costs associated with fighting wildfires, disaster response and the clean-up and rebuilding of critical infrastructure.
[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Estimating the full cost of a climate catastrophe, let alone multiple catastrophes, is not easy. [/perfectpullquote]
And we looked at impacts to vulnerable or marginalized communities, including First Nations, that were either evacuated because of fires or floods and in some cases evacuated twice to deal with back-to-back disasters.
All told, the combined cost of 2021’s extreme weather was equivalent to roughly three to five per cent of the province’s economy (GDP), a finding that underscores the need for senior levels of government to vastly increase funding of critical infrastructure to safeguard households, businesses and communities.
In Merritt, the destruction of insufficient dikes along the Coldwater River led to extensive damage to homes, businesses and public infrastructure including bridges and wastewater facilities.
The upper estimated cost for new dikes in Merritt is $169 million, a cost that the city’s annual tax base of $9 million cannot conceivably meet.
It is only a matter of when—not if—other climate catastrophes await us.
The $17-billion question now is whether or not we will be prepared for it.
A Climate Reckoning: The Economic Costs of BC’s Extreme Weather in 2021 was undertaken in partnership with Vancity. CCPA-BC thanks Vancity for their financial support of this research.
About the authors
Marc Lee
Marc Lee is a Senior Economist with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. Marc joined the CCPA’s British Columbia office in 1998, and is one of Canada’s leading progressive commentators on economic and environmental policy issues. From 2009 to 2015, Marc led the CCPA’s Climate Justice Project (CJP), which published a wide range of research on fair and effective approaches to climate action through integrating principles of social justice. Marc continues to write about climate and energy policy, strategies for affordable housing, federal and provincial budgets and macroeconomics. Marc has an MA in Economics from Simon Fraser University and a BA in Economics from the University of Western Ontario. Marc is a past chair of the Progressive Economics Forum, a national network of heterodox economists. He also served as a Visiting Professor at Simon Fraser University’s School of Public Policy in 2024 to 2025.
Ben Parfitt
Ben joined the CCPA staff team as a resource policy analyst in 2005 after years working as an investigative journalist with numerous magazines, and previous to that as a reporter with The Vancouver Sun. He is author and co-author of two books on forestry issues and currently devotes much of his policy research to natural resources, with special attention paid to energy, water, and forest resources and climate change. Ben values being part of a great team at the CCPA as well as the opportunities provided to meet regularly with First Nations, community leaders, environmental advocates and the many people who work in the province’s resource industries and who are committed to progressive change. Ben is an avid cyclist and budding day hiker who likes to take advantage of the many outdoor recreation options open to him and others living in Victoria and south Vancouver Island. He is the proud father of a super-talented daughter, Charlotte Priest, who is wise beyond her years and has taught him much. He also loves to listen to music—the good old fashion way—on vinyl. Follow Ben on Twitter
