(Bloomberg) — Even as rains drench the fields and orchards in California’s Central Valley where Bill Diedrich grows pistachios, almonds, tomatoes, cotton and other crops, he is still calculating losses from the region’s other defining extreme: severe drought.
Only months ago, it was a shortage of water that forced Diedrich to divert water meant for tomatoes so he could partially hydrate 350 acres (142 hectares) of almond trees. “It’s kind of like not feeding your child all they need,” he said. “Our food security depends on the water supply.”
The atmospheric rivers that have swept over the state — claiming at least 17 lives and dumping 24 trillion gallons of rain since December — would seemingly help that supply. Yet they’ve also shown one of California’s key infrastructure shortcomings as climate change intensifies weather extremes. The state’s outdated water system, designed and built between the 1930s and 1970s, makes it difficult in the current era to capture, store and convey water California needs to remain the dominant US agricultural and economic power.
The record-setting rain has rushed over saturated fields, burst out of river and stream banks, flooded cities and overwhelmed drainage systems, before ultimately washing out to sea.
“Time and time again we see wet years come and go and then wring our hands when it’s dry because we haven’t been able to save enough when it was wet,” said Mike Wade, executive director of the California Farm Water Coalition, a Sacramento nonprofit group.
Since the early 20th century, California’s growth has depended on capturing, storing and transporting immense amounts of water from the northern part of the state and the Sierra Nevada Mountains, where snow provides a water bank for warmer months, to farms in the Central Valley and cities in relatively arid southern California.
From the 1930s through the 1960s, the state and federal governments funded monumental engineering projects, such as the California State Water Project and the Central Valley Project, fueling population and economic growth, and through irrigation, transforming the Central Valley into the world’s most productive agricultural region. Today, the state’s growers produce one-third of US vegetables and 75% of US fruit and nut crops, according to the California Department of Food and Agriculture, generating more than $50 billion in annual revenue.
But the state’s infrastructure was built for a different climate, said Peter Gleick, a climatologist and co-founder at the Pacific Institute, a nonprofit research group in Oakland.
“It’s time to rethink how we operate the existing infrastructure and what kind of new infrastructure we need, given the increasing extreme events that climate change is bringing,” he said.
The systems of dams and aqueducts heralded as engineering marvels in the last century are contributing to current problems, because natural habitats and drainage systems were paved over or diverted, said Ellen Hanak, director of the PPIC Water Policy Center. Excess rain that otherwise could have been absorbed by the ground like a sponge instead gushes into torrential runoff.
Hanak says California’s challenge for the future is to adjust the system to balance ecological and economic interests such as agriculture. Capturing more surface water is one method, but involves building reservoirs and other above-ground structures that are expensive and often difficult to site.
A far more economical and ecologically sound method is to recharge groundwater, typically by channeling water so it can flow into natural underground aquifers that have been over pumped and drained during years of drought. “There is tremendous potential to get more water back in the ground in ways that benefit agricultural and urban users” said Hanak.
In 2014, California voters approved $7.5 billion in bonds to restore watersheds, improve water quality and water infrastructure, including $2.7 billion in funding for water storage projects. But unlike the grand engineering feats of the last century, today’s California water projects require decades to bring online, with years spent on environmental, regulatory and planning reviews.
Construction has yet to begin on any of the seven projects approved by the California Water Commission, and the new storage structures are scheduled to come online between 2025 and sometime after 2030.
See also: California Drought Conditions Improve After Weeks of Downpour
Governor Gavin Newsom acknowledged concerns about the prolonged time line of the water storage projects authorized in 2014. “The process is leading to paralysis,” Newsom said at a press conference in Sacramento on Tuesday. He said he has appointed “strike teams” to resolve the permitting bottlenecks among local, state and regulatory agencies.
Such frustrations, shared by farmers and residents alarmed by worsening extremes, are a recurring theme in California’s water woes.
“During the dry years, the people forgot about the rich years, and when the wet years returned, they lost all memory of the dry years,” John Steinbeck wrote in East of Eden. “It was always that way.” The year was 1952.
OTTAWA – Canada’s unemployment rate held steady at 6.5 per cent last month as hiring remained weak across the economy.
Statistics Canada’s labour force survey on Friday said employment rose by a modest 15,000 jobs in October.
Business, building and support services saw the largest gain in employment.
Meanwhile, finance, insurance, real estate, rental and leasing experienced the largest decline.
Many economists see weakness in the job market continuing in the short term, before the Bank of Canada’s interest rate cuts spark a rebound in economic growth next year.
Despite ongoing softness in the labour market, however, strong wage growth has raged on in Canada. Average hourly wages in October grew 4.9 per cent from a year ago, reaching $35.76.
Friday’s report also shed some light on the financial health of households.
According to the agency, 28.8 per cent of Canadians aged 15 or older were living in a household that had difficulty meeting financial needs – like food and housing – in the previous four weeks.
That was down from 33.1 per cent in October 2023 and 35.5 per cent in October 2022, but still above the 20.4 per cent figure recorded in October 2020.
People living in a rented home were more likely to report difficulty meeting financial needs, with nearly four in 10 reporting that was the case.
That compares with just under a quarter of those living in an owned home by a household member.
Immigrants were also more likely to report facing financial strain last month, with about four out of 10 immigrants who landed in the last year doing so.
That compares with about three in 10 more established immigrants and one in four of people born in Canada.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
The Canadian Institute for Health Information says health-care spending in Canada is projected to reach a new high in 2024.
The annual report released Thursday says total health spending is expected to hit $372 billion, or $9,054 per Canadian.
CIHI’s national analysis predicts expenditures will rise by 5.7 per cent in 2024, compared to 4.5 per cent in 2023 and 1.7 per cent in 2022.
This year’s health spending is estimated to represent 12.4 per cent of Canada’s gross domestic product. Excluding two years of the pandemic, it would be the highest ratio in the country’s history.
While it’s not unusual for health expenditures to outpace economic growth, the report says this could be the case for the next several years due to Canada’s growing population and its aging demographic.
Canada’s per capita spending on health care in 2022 was among the highest in the world, but still less than countries such as the United States and Sweden.
The report notes that the Canadian dental and pharmacare plans could push health-care spending even further as more people who previously couldn’t afford these services start using them.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.
As Canadians wake up to news that Donald Trump will return to the White House, the president-elect’s protectionist stance is casting a spotlight on what effect his second term will have on Canada-U.S. economic ties.
Some Canadian business leaders have expressed worry over Trump’s promise to introduce a universal 10 per cent tariff on all American imports.
A Canadian Chamber of Commerce report released last month suggested those tariffs would shrink the Canadian economy, resulting in around $30 billion per year in economic costs.
More than 77 per cent of Canadian exports go to the U.S.
Canada’s manufacturing sector faces the biggest risk should Trump push forward on imposing broad tariffs, said Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters president and CEO Dennis Darby. He said the sector is the “most trade-exposed” within Canada.
“It’s in the U.S.’s best interest, it’s in our best interest, but most importantly for consumers across North America, that we’re able to trade goods, materials, ingredients, as we have under the trade agreements,” Darby said in an interview.
“It’s a more complex or complicated outcome than it would have been with the Democrats, but we’ve had to deal with this before and we’re going to do our best to deal with it again.”
American economists have also warned Trump’s plan could cause inflation and possibly a recession, which could have ripple effects in Canada.
It’s consumers who will ultimately feel the burden of any inflationary effect caused by broad tariffs, said Darby.
“A tariff tends to raise costs, and it ultimately raises prices, so that’s something that we have to be prepared for,” he said.
“It could tilt production mandates. A tariff makes goods more expensive, but on the same token, it also will make inputs for the U.S. more expensive.”
A report last month by TD economist Marc Ercolao said research shows a full-scale implementation of Trump’s tariff plan could lead to a near-five per cent reduction in Canadian export volumes to the U.S. by early-2027, relative to current baseline forecasts.
Retaliation by Canada would also increase costs for domestic producers, and push import volumes lower in the process.
“Slowing import activity mitigates some of the negative net trade impact on total GDP enough to avoid a technical recession, but still produces a period of extended stagnation through 2025 and 2026,” Ercolao said.
Since the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement came into effect in 2020, trade between Canada and the U.S. has surged by 46 per cent, according to the Toronto Region Board of Trade.
With that deal is up for review in 2026, Canadian Chamber of Commerce president and CEO Candace Laing said the Canadian government “must collaborate effectively with the Trump administration to preserve and strengthen our bilateral economic partnership.”
“With an impressive $3.6 billion in daily trade, Canada and the United States are each other’s closest international partners. The secure and efficient flow of goods and people across our border … remains essential for the economies of both countries,” she said in a statement.
“By resisting tariffs and trade barriers that will only raise prices and hurt consumers in both countries, Canada and the United States can strengthen resilient cross-border supply chains that enhance our shared economic security.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 6, 2024.
