Canada: $8M heat-alert system

Between snow storms, traffic-snarling freezing rain and extreme cold, winter has always delivered this country's most hazardous weather.

But now the federal government is spending almost $8-million to better prepare Canadians for hot conditions, which it says will pose a growing health threat under the effects of global warming.

One climate-change skeptic, though, says the initiative would be an "absurd" waste of money even if the predicted temperature increases did occur.

Health Canada issued a tender last month for a study on heat-alert systems that could be implemented in towns and cities across the country to avoid the kind of death toll wrought by heat waves in Europe and the United States recently. It is also developing an education program for physicians and other health professionals on how to treat patients with heat-related health problems.

"We're going to be seeing increases in extreme-weather events and heat is one that is up there," said Jim Frehs, manager of Health Canada's climate change and health division. "It's not the first day [of a heat wave], it's not the second day, but it seems to be the third day when hospital presentations and mortality start occurring because the body just can't cope any more."

Mr. Frehs heads a program whose goal is to develop "more heat-resilient individuals, households and communities," part of an $85-million federal program to help Canadians adapt to global warming.