Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation | Centre Intact d’adaptation au climat

#LCF2024 participants are committed to learning about #naturalassets! 🌿Both yesterday and today’s sessions were standing room only!!! A pleasure to present with Hana Lapp, Guillaume LETOURNEL, Irwin Oostindie, Jinny Toffelmire to showcase multiple services of nature…(including climate resilience!) … and with Nicolas Dedovic, Christine Poirier, Roy Brooke, Shannon Fernandes and Jennifer Gunter (and all our workshoppers!) on how we can integrate natural assets into municipal management and financial reporting. Thanks to ICLEI Canada’s Sheri Young and Adlar Gross, and gracious hostesses Megan Meaney and Ewa Jackson, for inviting me to join my first LCF in Vancouver, a place brimming with natural assets!

On parle du Forum villes viables #LCF2024 d’ICLEI Canada sur les ondes, incluant comment adapter nos collectivités, les #infrastructuresnaturelles et notre Diagnostic du risque d’inondation municipal! 🎧 Écoutez ici: https://lnkd.in/ecQ3MwYm 🛠️ Consultez le Diagnostic du risque d’inondation municipal: https://lnkd.in/eNhF8scq

Dr. Anabela Bonada, PhD, was featured in a CBC News article, discussing the insured losses from climate change. Climate change is responsible for nearly half the economic damage from Hurricane Milton. Considering insured losses from Milton are estimated at $30 billion to 50 billion, it's no small number.  For Anabela Bonada, with the Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation at the University of Waterloo, it's a good number to have.  "I think it's a great approach because one of the questions that we first get asked is: 'So how much did this cost?' And everybody wants that number," Bonada explained, adding that such a rapid economic analysis would remind people of the cost of climate change. Read the article here: https://lnkd.in/gXuT2p7u

Vancouver Is Awesome featured Joanna Eyquem PGeo. ENV SP. CWEM. CEnv., where she discussed the insurance and federal government perspective of building properties and living in a high-risk area. Joanna Eyquem, the managing director of climate resilient infrastructure for the Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation at Waterloo University, said the current, more expensive model means taxpayer money pays for uninsured damage after a flood or wildfire. Those government bailouts add up to three to four times more than what the insurance industry reports, Eyquem said. “For me, it’s important to bear in mind that these insured losses are just the tip of the iceberg,” she said. “The taxpayer is basically insuring high-risk floodplains at this point.” Read the article here: https://lnkd.in/g7EHFF8d

Yesterday on Parliament Hill I was delighted to be invited by GreenPAC to moderate a cross-partisan education session on "Catching up on Climate Adaptation", with a full room of engaged MP and Senator staffers. Grateful to fellow panelists Sarah Sargent, Canadian Red Cross, Jimena Eyzaguirre, ESSA Technologies Ltd and Sheryl-Ann Simpson Carleton University for sharing practical pointers on accelerating investment in adaptation, public education, supporting vulnerable populations and how political staffers and elected officials can contribute. Thanks Rachel Barry and Insurance Bureau of Canada for supporting this discussion, and Sarah Van Exan, Beata Rasitsan, and Environmental Leadership Canada / GreenPAC's team of environmental interns for all their hard work making it happen!

On today's article in The Globe and Mail, Joanna Eyquem PGeo. ENV SP. CWEM. CEnv. spoke about the revocation of coastal development regulations in Nova Scotia.   Joanna Eyquem, managing director of climate-resilient infrastructure for the Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation, University of Waterloo, said Nova Scotia’s new approach contrasts strikingly with those of neighbours including Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick, which have introduced provincial restrictions to coastal development. “They’ve just taken a big step backwards, basically,” she said. “I don’t really see what the province has to gain by allowing people to increase risk and continue to make bad decisions.”   Read the article here: https://lnkd.in/eUSd_K9y

Today, from 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm, Dr. Blair Feltmate will give a talk to the Insurance Institute of Canada, discussing Protecting Homes and Communities from the Growing Risk of Wildfire in Forested Regions.

Join Dr. Blair Feltmate today on CBC Maritime Noon, with Bob Murphy (12:00 – 1:00 pm Atlantic Time), taking call-in questions about how to prepare homes for the growing risks of flooding and wildfire.

Joanna Eyquem PGeo. ENV SP. CWEM. CEnv., University of Waterloo, spoke on CBC News at 6 pm on the need to address intense rainfall flooding, like the events which caused severe damages in Toronto and Montreal this summer, alongside river and coastal flooding. Intense rainfall flood risk is not routinely mapped in Canada but techniques are available, as demonstrated by mapping recently released by the Communauté métropolitaine de Montréal (CMM).   Listen to the segment here (start at 13m03s) https://lnkd.in/gXjwr4nx

*Major new funding announcement!* The second funding offer through the Green Municipal Fund's Local Leadership for Climate Adaptation initiative is officially live. We're reminded often that local governments are responsible for ~60% of core public infrastructure in Canada, and while there are significant challenges in that responsibility, there are also opportunities. When the processes behind the enormous finances capable of managing, renewing, replacing and expanding infrastructure are aligned with a purpose, big things can happen. That's a core tenet behind Climate-Ready Plans and Processes; to harness the strength of what municipalities do, directing those actions towards building climate resilience over time. Local governments can access between $70,000-$140,000 to conduct activities like undertaking a climate risk assessment; completing a climate adaptation plan; and integrating resilience priorities into municipal processes like capital budgeting, land use planning, and asset management. Learn more here: https://lnkd.in/gymfcQq6