In 2024, more than 250 Canadian financial institutions mapped their loan books against flood and wildfire hazard. What that exercise could see, and what it could not, is the more useful guide to where blue finance stands.
Taking Stock
A missed payment follows a borrower to the next lender. A fuel spill in a First Nation's fishing grounds usually doesn't. Why environmental history stays behind, and where it travels.
A fishing boat belongs to somebody, feeds a family, and rests on a stock that may or may not be there next year. The divisions between those things are ours, not the ocean's.
Taking Stock
Ten years after the Tragically Hip's last concert, a look at the ocean in their songs and the water advocacy Gord Downie carried away from the stage. A three-word standard, a decade on a charity board, and a pier across the street from his family home.
Taking Stock
Construction lenders do not release funds until an independent surveyor confirms the work was done. Blue finance has strong mechanisms for tracking where money goes, but much weaker ones for verifying what happened in the water. The capacity to close that gap already exists on Canada’s three coasts.
