May 2026 Reports of the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development Flood Hazard Mapping
Good morning, Madam Chair, and thank you for the opportunity to appear before the committee today to discuss our report on Flood Hazard Mapping that was tabled earlier this month. I would like to begin by acknowledging that we are on the traditional unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinaabe people. With me today are Susie Fortier and Audrey Garneau, who were responsible for the audit.
The report we are discussing today is part of a new series of audits we started to complement our 2025 report on Canada's National Adaptation Strategy. This series looks at how the federal government is addressing global climate change. To better protect Canadians now and in the future, stronger action is needed to adapt to our rapidly changing world.
Our audit focused on flood hazard mapping, which is becoming increasingly important as Canada’s climate changes. We can no longer rely only on present-day data to prepare for floods. We also need to plan for future climate scenarios, including changing precipitation patterns. This is especially timely, given the significant flooding seen in many regions of Canada this spring. Flood hazard maps are a tool to inform residents, developers, and infrastructure planners of the risks of flooding in a given area.
We found that Natural Resources Canada, Environment and Climate Change Canada, and Public Safety Canada were slow to produce and share the flood hazard maps needed to protect communities and support climate change adaptation.
Public Safety Canada was supposed to deliver a Portal that would inform the general public about flood risks in 2025. When we tabled the report earlier this month, the flood risk finder's key feature—allowing users to find specific flood risk information for their location—was not yet active.
We also found that this planned flood risk awareness portal did not integrate climate change considerations or allow information to be easily updated as conditions change. This means that information in the portal will not reflect changes to flood risks over time.
For higher-resolution maps meant for regulatory use, we found that Natural Resources Canada did not ensure that mapping efforts prioritized higher-risk areas. Fewer than half of the mapping projects underway covered higher‑risk areas preliminarily identified in a 2022 initial analysis. The department had not finalised or updated this initial prioritization list.
We also found that many maps remained incomplete, and much of the existing mapping information was not practical or usable. The department was also not on track to make all maps currently in production publicly available by the target year of 2028.
In our view, the department’s ability to meaningfully report on the program’s success was significantly limited by unclear or incomplete performance indicators. This echoed a finding from our 2025 audit report on the national adaptation strategy, where we also noted weaknesses in the strategy’s framework for monitoring and evaluation.
We also found gaps in the approach Natural Resources Canada and Environment and Climate Change Canada used to review the maps produced against the technical requirements, but those gaps were addressed towards the end of our audit period, after we pointed them to the departments.
Overall, we issued 5 recommendations to the 3 departments around greater transparency, climate change considerations and general accountability. They were all accepted.
Climate change projections and easily available flood maps are needed to reliably inform long-term planning decisions, such as where to build homes or develop infrastructure. Canadians face escalating risks and higher disaster recovery costs in the absence of up-to-date information.
Madam Chair, this concludes my opening remarks. We would be pleased to answer any questions the committee may have. Thank you.