Building Municipal Resilience in Central Ontario
Mayor Jeff Lehman and the City of Barrie, in partnership with the Ontario Centre for Climate Impacts and Adaptation Resources (OCCIAR), and sponsored by the Insurance Bureau of Canada, was pleased to present a special one-day conference Building Municipal Resilience in Central Ontario.
Climate change continues to bring challenges that municipalities need to face head-on and manage proactively. Ontario is experiencing warming temperatures and changing precipitation patterns, resulting in a variety of environmental, social and economic impacts. It is the responsibility of municipalities to identify how climate variability/change will manifest itself and how those climate hazards will translate into impacts and risks for the community. This conference took participants through the science of climate change, best practices from the City of Barrie and other municipalities, risk mitigation, emergency management, non-governmental organization’s practices and research, leading edge case studies and adaptation planning. The day featured break-out sessions on two main themes: Infrastructure and Asset Management and Emergency Management.
Conference Report:
Building Municipal Resilience in Central Ontario – Final Conference Report
Presentations:
Welcome: Mayor Lehman, City of Barrie; Doug DeRabbie, Insurance Bureau of Canada
Burlington Flood Mayor Rick Goldring, City of Burlington
Asset Management / Infrastructure:
MRAT – Fighting Urban Flooding: Sally Turney, Insurance Bureau of Canada
City of Barrie Case Study: Building Municipal Resilience: Jacqueline Weston, City of Barrie
Building Municipal Resilience to Future Storms: Heather Auld, Risk Science International
When the Bough Breaks: Darla Campbell, Ontario Coalition for Sustainable Infrastructure
Emergency Management
Preparing for Severe Weather Events: Barney Owens, Office of the Fire Marshal and Emergency Management
Building municipal resilience in a changing climate: Paul Kovacs, Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction
Can we build disaster resilient communities? Dr. Gregory A Kopp, University of Western Ontario
Emergency Management Resilience: Jeff Weber, Barrie Fire and Emergency Services
Climate Change Dr. David Pearson, Laurentian University and Allan Douglas, OCCIAR
Wetland Infrastructure: Natural Resilience in a changing climate: Alexandra Service, Ducks Unlimited Canada
Georgina Island First Nation Climate Change Adaptation Program: Kerry-Ann Charles, Georgina Island First Nation
Climate Change Managing Risk: Mike Walters, Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority
Closing Comments Mayor Jeff Lehman, City of Barrie