As Canada prepares for a future of more frequent climate disasters, we need to ask a simple question: Who are our adaptation policies designed to protect?

The first time a wildfire threatened my family, I wasn’t watching the flames.

I was listening to daily calls from my mom. 

Ash settled across the barn, coated the vehicles and drifted through the air like a snowfall. Every update from emergency officials in British Columbia tightened the knot in my stomach. But my greatest fear wasn’t whether my parents would lose their property.

It was whether my mom could escape should she be alone.

She lived with Multiple Sclerosis and relied on a walker and, at times, a wheelchair. Time outside the house was limited. If an evacuation order came, every second would matter — and yet, most emergency plans assume people can leave quickly and independently.

Last year, a wildfire burned just 13 kilometres from my own home. Ash rained onto the roof as the sky darkened until the sun became a deep orange orb suspended in smoke. Standing outside, I looked around my community — a municipality with a large retirement population — and realized I was asking the same question again.

Who gets left behind when climate disasters arrive?

Canada has entered an era that calls for urgently adapting to the impacts of our warming climate. It's essential that governments invest in wildfire prevention and response, flood protection, emergency management and resilient infrastructure.

But to be effective, adaptation plans should also address the assumption that everyone experiences disasters in the same way. 

Climate change does not create inequity; it exposes and amplifies those already built into our communities. During a wildfire,........

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