Flood Emergency Response Planning for At-Risk Assets

GWLRA continues to improve on the resilience of our managed assets to natural hazards across the portfolio. Over the past four years, GWLRA has undertaken risk screening to identify the climate risks potentially posed to its clients’ assets and prioritized relatively higher-risk assets for vulnerability assessments to establish site-specific measures to improve resilience.

A key outcome from this exercise was recognizing that, while the overall portfolio exposure to flood was deemed low risk through the exposure exercise, there is still an inherent risk at any building in Canada for potential flooding. This ranges from external hazards like floods and severe storms, to infrastructure failure like burst municipal stormwater backups or burst pipes. Recognizing the need for preparedness even at low-risk assets, a specialized consultant developed a flood emergency response plan (FERP) template for use at all properties to manage this risk across the GWLRA portfolio.

The FERP builds upon existing business continuity plans by establishing a standardized preparation, response and recovery procedure tailored to flood risks. Some of the key components of a FERP include identifying potential flood hazards at sites, listing vulnerabilities for water entry and exposure, creating a response team, communications for tenants, and preparing a recovery plan and restoration checklist to restore the building to normal operation.

By being prepared, we are protecting our staff, building occupants and residents, and assets from potential harms posed by flooding. We are also educating property teams on flood hazards and establishing a specific procedure to support an actionable and clear process for all staff and tenants to follow.

An initial group of assets were identified for the initial rollout of the FERP in 2024, based on relative risk exposure. The remaining assets across the portfolio will complete plans throughout 2025 and 2026 to ensure consistency across the portfolio, and to recognize the impact a flood event can have on any asset.

It is prudent to prepare our assets for the potentially increased frequency and magnitude of climate events. The FERP template will better prepare our staff, tenants and assets for future flood hazards, and contribute to our goal of long-term value preservation and creation for our assets.