Communiqué de presse
QUEST Unveils Key Lessons for Canadian Communities on Resilience
Ottawa, Ontario – February 5, 2020 — Today QUEST released two publications that unveil key lessons learned from the Municipalities and Utilities Partnering for Community Resilience initiative.
Municipalities and utilities are on the front lines when it comes to coping with the impacts of climate change. This initiative was a response to communities’ need to have relevant tools and an assessment process to adapt their energy system to climate hazards, reduce the risk associated with prolonged power outages, and respond to emergency situations in order to mitigate the social and economic costs of climate change to residents and businesses.
Over two years, QUEST worked with twelve Canadian municipalities, their utilities, and community stakeholders in four provinces through workshops, research, and mentoring. With a specific focus on energy, QUEST helped them to better incorporate climate data in their planning documents and process, map their vulnerabilities and strengths to specific climate hazards, and prioritize actions and solutions to address identified gaps.
The twelve Canadian municipalities that participated in the project are:
- The City of Charlottetown, the City of Summerside, and the Town of Stratford in Prince Edward Island
- City of the City of Campbellton, the City of Saint John, the Town of Tracadie, and the Town of Woodstock in New Brunswick
- The City of Dauphin and the Rural Municipality of Alexander in Manitoba
- The Town of Cochrane, the Town of Devon, and the Town of Okotoks in Alberta
Participating municipalities received tailored recommendations with a focus on building resilient energy infrastructure, developing Community Energy Plans, and preparing for prolonged power outages. This helped municipalities inform the development and implementation of their climate adaptation plans and review of their emergency management plans.
This initiative also highlighted three key findings. First, while each community is unique and provincial energy landscapes diverse, participating municipalities and partnering energy utilities share common vulnerabilities such as energy infrastructure located in flood and wildfire prone areas, no back-up power on essential facilities, lack of incorporation of climate data and projection in land-use planning and asset management plans. Second, municipalities and energy utilities are aware of the importance of adapting to climate change and willing to act. Municipalities have already started to implement adaptation and resilience measures despite limited human and financial resources as well as limited access to sound and affordable expertise. Finally, the initiative confirmed the need for more collaboration between municipalities and utilities to improve energy resilience.
QUEST has shaped the lessons learned from this on-the-ground work into a set of two resources for communities interested in starting or reviewing their climate adaptation and climate planning strategy and their emergency responses, with a specific lens on energy infrastructure. The two new publications include Building Community Resilience: Key Considerations and Lessons Learned from Twelve Canadian Communities and the Community Resilience Mini-Guide.
QUEST is dedicated to advance Smart Energy Communities in Canada. Adapting energy infrastructure to more extreme weather events and securing the continuation of energy services are key components of Smart Energy Communities.
Ce projet n’aurait pas pu voir le jour sans l’appui de la Fondation Suncor Énergie. Fédération des municipalités canadiennes (FCM) Municipalities for Climate Innovation Program (MCIP) and Ressources naturelles Canada’s Climate Change and Adaptation Program. FCM’s MCIP helps communities to build sustainable and reliable services while tackling climate change and its effects. Learn more about MCIP.
To learn more visit the page web du projet or join the upcoming webinar where QUEST will present key insights from the Building Community Resilience report, on Thursday, February, 20th, 2020 at 12:30 PM AT / 11:30 AM EST / 9:30 AM MST.
Inscrivez-vous maintenant.
S'inscrire
Rejoindre la conversation!
Inscrivez-vous pour recevoir les dernières nouvelles et mises à jour sur les événements de QUEST Canada et recevez la newsletter mensuelle de QUEST Canada.