Goal 5: Seek opportunities to collaborate with others

Goal 5: Seek opportunities to collaborate with others

Adapting to a changing climate is a responsibility shared by all — governments, businesses, communities and individuals.

While climate change is a global issue, adaptation to a changing climate has to happen in the communities and places where the consequences are felt.

The role of government extends to facilitating the collection and sharing of information with communities and stakeholders throughout the province.

Aspects of implementing adaptation that need to be used within government and shared effectively include:

• access to climate change projections, risk-management tools and best adaptation practices
• understanding potential impacts, such as the spread of damaging forest insect pests
• access to the best methodologies for projecting the intensity and return periods for extreme events

Furthermore, there is much to be learned from other jurisdictions within Canada and internationally.

The Government of Ontario will seek opportunities to:

• collaborate with other governments, organizations and communities of interest across Canada and globally
• share experiences and knowledge from all sources
• advance its knowledge and to build capacity on its body of work in adaptation
• develop cooperative actions for promoting and implementing adaptation

Ontario has much to offer through its experience in developing policies and programs, implementing goals and evaluating program success.

The goals and actions outlined in Ontario’s first Adaptation Strategy and Action Plan call for leadership from the Province. At the same time, achieving success in addressing Ontario’s vulnerabilities to climate change is a shared responsibility across all levels of government and depends on collaboration and partnerships across many sectors, organizations and communities.

It is essential that Ontario collaborate and strengthen alliances. As a starting point, the following actions identify some specific areas of collaboration.

Collaboration in Ontario

The Ministry of the Environment, the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing are participating in Natural Resources Canada’s Regional Adaptation Collaborative Program.

Ontario’s Regional Adaptation Collaborative exemplifies adaptation action across all five goals in Ontario’s broader Adaptation Strategy and Action Plan.

Ontario’s Regional Adaptation Collaborative — a joint partnership between three provincial ministries, the federal government, and seven other regional collaborators —has a strong mandate to improve decision-making on adaptation issues throughout the province over a three-year time frame.

Ontario’s Regional Adaptation Collaborative members include:

• The Ministry of the Environment
• The Ministry of Natural Resources
• The Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing
• Natural Resources Canada
• Clean Air Partnership
• Ontario Centre for Climate Impacts and Adaptation Resources
• Toronto Region Conservation Authority
• Association for Canadian Educational Resources
• Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction
• York University
• Toronto Public Health

Ontario’s Regional Adaptation Collaborative is bringing together leading climate experts in Ontario to utilize the best available climate science and data, and to develop leading edge risk-management tools that will support the building of Ontario’s resiliency to climate change impacts across key sectors. This information and these tools will support the development of comprehensive adaptation strategies at the community level.

Expertise

Members of Ontario’s Regional Adaptation Collaborative have specialized knowledge and on-the-ground experience in:

• education and training
• data management
• water resources management
• drinking water protection
• human health
• infrastructure design and resiliency
• land use planning
• communication

A collaborative approach to addressing these complex issues of adaptation to climate change will allow Ontario’s Regional Adaptation Collaborative to benefit from the expertise and unique insight of all the partner organizations.

The goal is to create a legacy of adaptive measures and instruments to function after the program’s end date of March 2012.

This will also lead to opportunities for sharing experiences and collaborating with other levels of government and other jurisdictions across Canada.

Ontario’s Regional Adaptation Collaborative focuses on three key areas of adaptation planning:

1. Managing the Risks of Extreme Weather

   Ontario’s Regional Adaptation Collaborative will develop, test and, through case studies, apply risk-assessment and risk-management tools for dealing with the impacts of extreme weather events.

2. Managing Water Resources

   Ontario’s Regional Adaptation Collaborative will promote the integration of adaptation to climate change adaptation into water resource management across the province, with a strong focus on source water protection.

3. Integrating Adaptation into Community Planning and Policies

   Ontario’s Regional Adaptation Collaborative will provide information, tools and recommendations to help integrate climate change adaptation into planning, policies and processes within municipalities and regions.

Actions underway through the Ontario Regional Adaptation Collaborative include:

Developing a municipal risk-management tool

As part of Ontario’s Regional Adaptation Collaborative, the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing will be developing an Ontario-based risk- management tool to assist other municipalities in the development of adaptation strategies.

This tool will provide a digital matrix that will help municipalities identify vulnerabilities and understand the magnitude of risks using information about frequency and severity of potential climate impacts such as flooding. Risks can be identified and prioritized for each municipal department and also rolled-up and ranked as a comprehensive identification of vulnerabilities for the municipality as a whole.

Emergency Management

In Ontario, the Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act obliges municipalities to produce Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment (HIRA) reports. The tool will not only assist municipalities in producing more sophisticated HIRA analysis, it will also allow them to prioritize adaptive actions to respond to HIRA identified risks. It has potential land use planning applications with implications for altering municipal zoning by-law practices to better accommodate climate change impacts.

The Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing will be developing a climate change adaptation toolkit that will support municipalities in using the digital risk-assessment tool. This toolkit will be designed with an emphasis on ease of use and ensure that the tool is useful to a range of communities in Ontario. The tool will be tested in selected communities and training will be delivered to municipal groups across the province by the ministry’s Regional Municipal Services Offices staff and a number of stakeholder groups. Once completed, wide dissemination of the toolkit is planned.

Developing guidance for building retrofits

Through work with the Government of Ontario and the Regional Adaptation Collaborative, the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction (ICLR) is providing guidance to owners of existing structures on how best to retrofit buildings to withstand the impacts of a changing climate.

Institute of Catastrophic Loss Reduction

For more than a decade, the Institute of Catastrophic Loss Reduction has been working with its sister organization in United States, the Institute for Business and Home Safety, and the Department of Engineering at the University of Western Ontario, as well as with homebuilders, the insurance industry and climatologists, to identify best construction practices to reduce the risk of damage to buildings from climate extremes.

According to the 2006 census 85% of Ontario’s population lives in urban centers. We need to address the emerging risks of climate change for the built infrastructure, natural infrastructure and social infrastructure of our cities. Eva Ligeti,
Executive Director of Clean Air Partnership,
First Environmental Commissioner of Ontario

The Boundary Layer Wind Tunnel and the Insurance Research Lab for Better Homes at the University of Western Ontario allows engineers to examine all aspects of house construction and a variety of impacts from extreme wind effects to moisture penetration.

As part of Ontario’s Regional Adaptation Collaborative, ICLR will continue to conduct on-site evaluations of Ontario homes damaged by severe weather events and will formulate guidelines to limit future destruction. For example, ICLR was on-site in the days following the 2009 tornadoes in Vaughan to examine damage caused to homes. Following that examination, Institute of Catastrophic Loss Reduction researchers developed a number of recommendations for change in building design and construction techniques to improve the ability of buildings to withstand similar extreme weather events.

In addition to its core work on improving new building construction in Ontario, the Institute of Catastrophic Loss Reduction will also provide guidance to owners of existing structures on how to best retrofit their buildings to withstand the impacts of a changing climate. For example, the installation of backflow valves on domestic sewer lines in the basements of homes is seen as a straightforward example of retrofitting that would save homeowners and insurers significant dollars. Connections between storm and sewer drainage systems often lie at the root of basement back-ups and the urgency of separating the two systems is underscored by the likelihood of increasingly frequent intense rain events.

Creating a heat vulnerability tool

The increasing frequency and duration of heat waves is a primary health concern that we will face in Ontario as the climate warms.

Toronto Public Health (TPH) is mapping areas most impacted by heat events in relation to location of vulnerable populations such as the very young or elderly. This work will support the way Toronto Public Health plans for extreme heat events.

A Toronto Public Health pilot study will use Geographic Information Systems (GIS) mapping to coordinate extreme-heat-response plans to show areas most impacted by heat events as well as population data that identifies clusters of vulnerable populations.

TPH will use community outreach organizations and frontline health care workers who deliver services under the hot weather response plan to develop, test and implement this GIS map-based decision-support tool.

The tool and all support material developed under Ontario’s Regional Adaptation Collaborative will be made available on-line for use in other Ontario communities.

Integrating climate impacts into the source protection framework

The Ministry of the Environment is taking action to integrate climate change considerations into the source water protection framework and informing stakeholders' decisions on how to protect local drinking water sources.

The initiatives include:

• a needs assessment to identify and prioritize gaps in monitoring data which enable projections of climate change impacts (e.g. weather stations, monitoring networks)
• assessment of climate change impacts on the effectiveness of risk- management measures
• assessments of how risk management can be adapted or reconfigured to better deal with impacts to water quality and quantity
• coordinating training and developing new training materials with York University and Toronto and Region Conservation Authority on a method of integrating climate change projections into hydrologic modelling conducted in water budgets
• developing, with York University and Toronto and Region Conservation Authority, a suite of training products including guidance documents and tools to be used in workshops and on the web to support decision-making
• establishing an experts' network/community of practice to meet in workshops for the exchange of climate change science in partnership with Toronto and Region Conservation, on behalf of Conservation Ontario and York University

Additionally, York University is assisting the RAC with three research forums on leadership and learning, providing opportunity to supplement peer-to-peer social networking with face-to-face engagement. York University is also developing a social media site which will provide post-training support and updates on emerging best practices to encourage exchange between academics, decision-makers, source protection practitioners and other experts.

Developing a weather and water information gateway

The Ministry of Natural Resources, in conjunction with the Association for Canadian Educational Resources, is developing a web-based information discovery and access tool that will be available to decision-makers in the public and private sector to facilitate adaptation decision-making related to Great Lakes water levels, flooding, drought and stormwater/wastewater management.

When complete, this gateway will be a flexible, scalable and standardized information system that provides long-term access to current and future weather data, as well as data on water resource quality and quantity.

To demonstrate the utility of the gateway, the Ministry of Natural Resources will work with stakeholders on a series of Local Adaptation Demonstration Projects. The projects will focus on different communities with unique climate risks, including:

• flooding (Otonabee Region Conservation Authority and the City of Peterborough)
• stormwater management (Toronto and Region Conservation Authority)
• northern community and integrated risk management (Nickel District Conservation Authority and the City of Sudbury)
• drinking water source protection (Mississippi Valley Conservation Authority and Rideau Source Protection Planning Committee)
• low water response (Nottawasaga Valley Conservation Authority)

Results from these projects will be reviewed at a series of regional/watershed-based workshops that will be delivered to key stakeholders and decision-makers. The workshops will share best practices and provide instruction on using the water and weather information gateway to design and implement effective adaptation measures.

The ultimate goal is to build local capacity to make informed risk- management decisions at the watershed level through the delivery of relevant data, knowledge and tools.

Providing community outreach and training

The Government of Ontario is supporting a wide range of community outreach and training programs through the partnerships with the Ontario Centre for Climate Impacts and Adaptation Resources and the Clean Air Partnership developed under Ontario’s Regional Adaptation Collaborative.

Decisions at the local level — made through municipal by-laws, official plans, infrastructure investments, emergency response procedures and drinking water source protection plans — require careful consideration in light of the risks posed by climate change.

Ontario’s Regional Adaptation Collaborative will help Ontario communities assess their vulnerabilities and consider appropriate policy responses so that city planners, water managers and other municipal decision-makers can make recommendations that enhance the adaptive capacity of their structural and social systems. Outreach and training will be provided by the Clean Air Partnership and the Ontario Centre for Climate Impacts and Adaptation Resources to ensure communities are prepared to manage the effects of climate change. Programs include:

• an intensive adaptation training program targeting medium to large- sized municipalities; training to be provided on adaptation planning; training sessions to feature speakers with expertise in various areas; a "train-the-trainer" program to be developed to promote wide knowledge-sharing within these communities
• outreach and training to Ontario’s northern communities; training will focus on refining tools for adaptation planning customized to the location and socio-economic context of the community

Collaboration across Canada

Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment (CCME) is actively engaged in water issues and has built on its commitment to provide leadership on water by creating a collaborative, strategic, Canada- wide vision entitled, "CCME Setting Strategic Directions for Water".

This forward-looking framework provides guidance to provinces and territories on how to reduce the impacts of climate change on water resources through adaptive strategies. To further develop adaptation, Ontario is actively collaborating with other governments in Canada on the development of several tools including:

• methods for developing vulnerability assessments for watersheds – information on areas of a community which are particularly vulnerable to climate change is important in order to determine regionally appropriate adaptation measures
• guidance on short, medium and long-term adaptation measures that can be used by communities

In addition, the Government of Ontario is leading a three-year CCME initiative to develop guidance material for decision-makers and practitioners in provinces and territories to evaluate their water monitoring networks, specifically on the ability to detect climate change. The envisioned guidance document would enable identification of future investment needs for water monitoring while maximizing limited resources and contributing scientific information necessary for adaptation planning in preparation for and response to climate change. The project is being completed in several phases.

Canadian Council of Forest Ministers (CCFM) has identified climate change as a priority in their, "Vision for Canada’s Forests: 2008 and Beyond". As part of a shared commitment to sustainable forest management, the CCFM is developing innovative approaches to mitigate the effects of climate change and adapt to its impacts on Canada’s forests. To inform this work, the CCFM recently released two reports:

• Vulnerability of Canada’s Tree Species to Climate Change and Management Options for Adaptation — identifies opportunities for incorporating climate change adaptation strategies into the management of Canada’s tree species.
• A Framework for Forest Management Offset Protocols — explores issues and possible solutions in measuring the carbon storage effects of various forest management activities.

The Ministry of Natural Resources is committed to working with the CCFM to address forest and climate change issues and continues to collaborate with other Canadian provinces and territories on climate change adaptation. Currently, the ministry is participating in efforts to develop practical adaptation tools and techniques for the forest sector. This program is examining approaches to vulnerability assessments for the forest sector and developing other tools for decision-makers.

National Adaptation Community of Practice

Led by the Premier, Ontario hosted a National Climate Change Adaptation Summit in 2008. The Summit brought together scientific and technical expertise and policy leaders from across Canada to focus on actions that can be taken in response to existing and imminent climate change impacts.

A significant gap that was identified was ongoing access to scientific expertise and technical support to assist decision- making. As a result, the Council of the Federation, working with the Ontario Centre for Climate Impacts and Adaptation Resources (OCCIAR), developed a web-based Community of Practice to facilitate this information exchange among experts across the country. The mandate of the Community of Practice is to support all Canadian Provinces and Territories in their efforts to incorporate climate change adaptation into their planning and policies.

Ontario is emerging as an international policy leader with respect to adaptation to climate change. Paul Kovacs,
Executive Director, Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction
President, Property and Casualty, Insurance Compensation Corporation
Adjunct Research Professor, Economics, The University of Western Ontario

The on-line Climate Change Adaptation Community of Practice was launched in the summer of 2010. It is already helping to connect policymakers to research professionals across the country. To date, the community includes over 300 research and policy experts. The site will be sponsored for the next two years by the Council of the Federation.

The current vision for the Community of Practice focuses on connecting scientific expertise with the provincial and territorial government decision-makers who require access to science and technical data to improve policies and programs likely to be affected by climate change. The Community of Practice supports the sharing of expertise among different types of experts and increases researchers' understanding of the kinds of information that government needs as well as the ways governments use that information. It features a range of interactive tools, including on-line forums to share information, educational webinars, private research space, an on-line library of adaptation resources and contact information of adaptation experts across Canada.

Collaborating globally

Developed countries and regions cannot address climate change alone. Extreme events, temperature increases and sea level rise have consequences for everyone, particularly in developing countries. Therefore, it is important that developing countries and regions have the tools to foster low-carbon and climate-resilient development.

As part of Ontario’s commitment to international action on climate change, Ontario’s Minister of the Environment signed a Statement of Intent with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP15) in December 2009.

The Statement of Intent indicates Ontario’s interest in working with the UNDP under its Territorial Approach to Climate Change Program which partners developed sub-national governments with counterparts in developing countries to address climate change.

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

Attending the annual Conference of the Parties, the annual conference established by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, provides Ontario with an opportunity to secure partnerships and build relationships with like-minded jurisdictions and to share some of the innovative policies and practices that are making a difference in Ontario.

At the sixteenth Conference of the Parties (COP16) held in Cancun in December 2010, Andrew Heintzman, Chair of the Premier’s Climate Change Advisory Panel, represented Ontario along with senior staff who participated as observers. Ontario’s delegation shared Ontario’s experience in tackling climate change with other jurisdictions at events such as the Climate Group’s Climate Leaders Summit.

In December 2009, Ontario’s Minister of the Environment, accompanied by Dr. Ian Burton, co-chair of Ontario’s Expert Panel on Climate Change Adaptation and internationally-recognized climate change expert, participated in the fifteenth Conference of the Parties (COP15) held in Copenhagen. Adaptation was a significant topic of discussion and negotiation. Ontario took the opportunity at COP15 to share the province’s experience in tackling climate change with other jurisdictions and to promote Ontario’s adaptation initiatives — which included releasing the Expert Panel on Climate Change Adaptation’s report, "Adapting to Climate Change in Ontario".

Future vision

The Government of Ontario understands that adaptation alone is not sufficient to meet all the challenges of a changing climate. However, adaptation is an absolutely necessary step if communities and economies are to deal with the weather disruptions that are becoming more severe and frequent as the planet’s climate changes. In pursuing its responsibilities to the people of Ontario, as well as playing its part in the efforts of the global community, the Province will not lose sight of the fact that emissions of greenhouse gases must be reduced. The Government of Ontario will continue to promote adaptation as a prudent approach to reducing risks to life and property in the immediate future.

Adaptation is a new challenge and Ontario must learn from others. At the same time, our province has a lot to offer in the way of knowledge and technology that can help save lives and protect property in other places.

The Government of Ontario welcomes the opportunity to work with federal government partners that recognize the magnitude of the effort required. The Regional Adaptation Collaborative (RAC), which will be completed in March 2012, is a small step in the right direction, but a great deal more strategic planning and funding is required. Ontario encourages the federal government to enhance its commitment and will be pleased to participate in subsequent joint initiatives designed to sustain national and community- based adaptation action.

In the meantime, determining the legacy plan for the projects, plans and tools created by the various Regional Adaptation Collaboratives will be a key aspect of ensuring the benefits of RAC program are maximized. We know that the Community of Practice on adaptation, hosted in Ontario, will be an important means of sharing what has been learned across the country.

The Government of Ontario — working together with other provinces and territories — will continue to share information and decision-support resources generated by the RAC and other adaptation initiatives across the country. Ontario recognizes the need for the federal government to have a continued role in managing a national approach to climate change adaptation in order to drive effective infrastructure design, climate science and other investments in light of a changing climate.

We will continue to encourage the federal government to sustain adaptation funding to enhance resilience across Canada post-2012.

The Government of Ontario will seek to:

• contribute knowledge and technical expertise through national and international initiatives
• build capacity in our ability to understand the implications of a changing climate for all aspects of Ontario’s role in international trade and other matters under negotiation including Great Lakes Agreements
• play an active role in encouraging the implementation of effective adaptation planning

Closing thanks

The Ministry of the Environment would like to thank the following ministries for their collaborative support in developing this Adaptation Strategy and Action Plan:

• Ministry of Aboriginal Affairs
• Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs
• Cabinet Office
• Climate Change Secretariat
• Ministry of Economic Development and Trade
• Ministry of Education
• Emergency Management Ontario
• Ministry of Energy
• Ministry of Finance
• Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care
• Ministry of Infrastructure
• Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing
• Ministry of Natural Resources
• Ministry of Northern Development, Mines and Forestry
• Ministry of Research and Innovation
• Ministry of Tourism and Culture
• Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities
• Ministry of Transportation

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