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News Release

QUEST Partnering with Municipalities and Utilities for Community Resilience 

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Apr 5, 2019

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Ottawa, Ontario – April 5, 2019. QUEST is thrilled to announce that it is working with six communities through the Municipalities and Utilities Partnering for Community Resilience Initiative as a result of funding that was announced today from Natural Resources Canada.

The six communities include:

  • The City of Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island
  • The City of Dauphin, Manitoba
  • The City of Summerside, Prince Edward Island
  • The Town of Stratford, Prince Edward Island
  • The Town of Woodstock, New Brunswick
  • The Rural Municipality of Alexander, Manitoba

Municipalities and utilities are on the front lines when it comes to responding to energy and grid related impacts of climate change, and require the tools and assessment processes to reduce risk and outages, respond to emergencies, maximize limited funding, and lower overall costs to residents and businesses.

QUEST is working directly with municipalities and their utilities across Canada through workshops and mentoring, to align their approaches on energy and grid related impacts for climate adaptation & resilience. 

The project will result in resources to help establish a national guideline for how municipalities and utilities can work together on adaptation through land use planning, energy planning and reliability measures, and emergency response during power outages.

This funding will allow QUEST to continue the work that started in 2018 as a result of funding received through the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) Climate Adaptation Partner Grants which engaged six other municipalities and their utilities across Canada.

 

“We know that municipalities and utilities are on the front lines when it comes to responding to energy and grid related impacts of climate change, but there remains a critical gap in Canadian based tools and processes to support this type of planning. QUEST has experience working with communities to develop resources that will fill this gap.”

Tonja Leach

Executive Director, QUEST

“Charlottetown is pleased to be partnering with municipalities and utilities on community resilience. Adapting to climate change means collaborating across City departments. It means community-driven approaches and everyone working together to find creative solutions. We’re being proactive, adapting our infrastructure and city to be resilient in the face of astonishing changes.”

Mayor Philip Brown

City of Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island

“Sustainability is an important part of Dauphin’s success and a central theme for our community’s growth. The decisions made today will impact future generations as the effects of climate change become more pronounced. By participating in QUEST we hope to grow and apply our collective knowledge so the choices we make today will produce the best possible outcomes for tomorrow.”

Bob Ashley, CAO

City of Summerside, Prince Edward Island

“The Town of Stratford is pleased to be a QUEST participant and looks forward to the information which will be made available to our community upon the project’s conclusion. This information will serve to inform and advance decisions of the Town to better prepare ourselves for the impacts of climate change. We are pleased to also have participation from fellow municipalities on PEI which may allow for more coordination of resources and sharing of information.”

Mayor Steve Ogden

The Town of Stratford, Prince Edward Island

“Woodstock is benefiting greatly from inclusion in this project. It (the project) has facilitated new lines of communication around climate change and resiliency, helping Woodstock facilitate discussions on subjects of infrastructure risks associated with climate change within the community. As we move through further municipal planning, this work will provide another lens through which we manage assets for the community.”

John Pinsent, CAO

Town of Woodstock, New Brunswick

“The RM of Alexander is excited to be a part of NRCan Community Resilience Project. This exercise will provide many benefits to both residents and visitors to the region by gaining an understanding of vulnerabilities to climate change and developing the tools necessary to cope with these challenges in order to make our community stronger and more adaptive.”

Don Dowle, CAO

Rural Municipality of Alexander, Manitoba

Learn more by visiting the project webpage.

Learn about QUEST’s Advisory Services. QUEST offers Resilience Workshops to communities that are looking to understand how climate risks and vulnerabilities impact our energy systems.

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