It’s been a long cold winter in most of Canada, and one that just won’t quit.
In the capital of the prairie province of Manitoba, over 500 homes are without water as the city pipes are frozen. That’s up from 300 the week before. There have also been a number of pipes bursting from the cold.
On March 1, the overnight temperature in the city was -37 C.
One city councillor, Dan Vandal, says the city needs more than three pipe-thawing machines to unblock the city pipes. Although they are operating around the clock 7 days a week, as the cold continues the number of homes on the waiting list is growing and some homes without water for up to two weeks.
After a special public works committee meeting he told reporters, “The lesson to be learned here is climate is changing, it’s going to offer all sorts of different challenges to municipalities and large cities and we need to start thinking about trying to get a handle on the unexpected, in terms of weather.”
In southern Ontario meanwhile, the cold weather has meant increased heating costs for greenhouse operations. Don Taylor, chair of the Ontario Greenhouse Vegetable Growers Association, says heating costs for operations has gone up 30 percent on average. He says that will likely be reflected in higher costs to consumers for vegetables.
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