Federal Emergency Preparedness Minister Bill Blair was in town Wednesday to have a peek at the Yukon’s preparations for another flooding season.

As the Star reported Monday, eight of the 11 monitored regions in the territory have the highest basin snowpack

estimates ever recorded.

Consequently, it appears likely the Yukon will find it difficult to escape some flooding during the upcoming warm months.

The remaining three basins have well above average snowpack.

A record-setting snowpack in many watersheds in the territory increases the potential for flooding during river ice breakup and spring snowmelt, states a news release put out Monday.

Wednesday’s news conference featured Blair, Yukon MP Brendan Hanley and Community Services Minister Richard Mostyn, all in optimistic moods.

They spent the initial few minutes of the news praising each other before fielding some questions on emergency preparation.

Blair was particularly effusive, saying Hanley is proving to be a valuable resource. He also met briefly with Premier Sandy Silver, who he said is in charge of an “extraordinary team.”

There were no new announcements in the offing, but Blair, Hanley and Mostyn had spent the morning touring sites in the Marsh Lake area and speaking with residents about last year’s flooding.

Hanley said Blair was in the Yukon to “see the important work going on here.”

“We (Yukoners) have had to deal with many challenges and uncertainties,” he said.

Blair, a former Toronto police chief, said he had developed a rapport with Mostyn last year during the summer floods, where they sometimes spoke every hour.

He called the tour of Marsh Lake a “great learning experience.”

Mostyn termed their relationship a “strong partnership.”

He hedged on saying outright that flooding this year is almost inevitable, although he is expecting something different than last year’s “slow-motion flooding.”

As to what exactly that means, he was unclear when questioned by a reporter.

Many of the sandbag berms are still in place from last year, Mostyn said. More resources for sandbags are already being used, and homeowners in the Marsh Lake area are busy making preparation and shoring up the properties for another watery onslaught.

Unlike 2021, the snowpack in the Southern Lakes region isn’t at record levels, which should help ameliorate the situation, though temperatures will be a major factor in what happens.

It’s other parts of the Yukon that stand in more danger of flooding during the warm months.

Mostyn also talked up work to establish a fire break at the south end of Whitehorse in the Copper Belt Road area. That work had already been announced by the city a few weeks ago, however.

Mostyn and Blair attributed the increased threat of flooding to climate change.

Blair said Canada and its regions need a comprehensive adaptation strategy to deal with the concurrent problems.

“We’re seeing the cost of climate change in spades,” Blair added.

“We have to do the right thing together.”

“We have to plan for the worst and hope for the best,” Mostyn added.