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Moderator: Devin Causley

Presenters: Sara Jane O'Neill and Mike Kennedy

Communities across the country are experiencing the impacts from climate change and extreme weather. The bill continues to grow while the funds available to respond are finite. How do we evaluate the rising costs and share the burden in responding across government, industry and the public?

This session will start by sharing the results of recent research conducted by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities and Insurance Bureau of Canada on the estimated costs for adapting infrastructure to existing impacts. The session will open with a short set of panel presenters to set the context, followed by a fireside chat with two communities from Canada’s north and east coast where the associated costs of climate change are expected to be highest.

Moderator: Brett Huson

Presenters: Dr. Ian Mauro, Danny Blair, Laura Cameron and Duane Nicol

The Climate Atlas of Canada (www.climateatlas.ca) – the flagship project of the University of Winnipeg’s Prairie Climate Centre (PCC) – is increasingly a “go to” tool for Canadians seeking climate resources for public education and applied decision-making. In this interactive session, join the PCC and their partners to learn about the design of this tool and how it weaves together climate science and storytelling with community-based research, filmmaking and adaptation planning. A series of lightening talks will kick off the session, giving participants a high-level overview of the main themes, which will be followed by facilitated breakout sessions that will allow participants to engage more intimately with the PCC team to discuss the specifics of the initiative. Participants will have an opportunity to provide feedback on how the platform – as part of a larger continuum of tools – can be improved to support climate change adaptation locally, regionally and nationally.

Moderator: Bob Purdy

Invasion Risk from Vessel Traffic in Marine Protected Areas under Current and Future Climate Conditions

Presenters: Dr. Josephine Iacarella

Non-indigenous species pose a significant threat to the main objective of marine conservation, protecting biodiversity. To-date, there has been limited research quantifying invasion risk to marine protected areas (MPAs) despite the potential consequences of invasions. Dr. Iacarella from Fisheries and Oceans Canada will present research on how invasions in MPAs can be predicted by evaluating suitable environmental conditions under current and future climates and vessel traffic movements as a pathway of spread. This research highlights a major conservation concern often overlooked in MPA spatial planning and management, and applies well-established tools in a novel approach to assess invasion risk.

Best Practices for Managing Invasive Species in the Metro Vancouver Region – Tools for Prevention, Management & Education

Presenters: Tasha Murray and Laurie Bates-Frymel

Invasive species are non-native flora or fauna that can be highly destructive, costly, competitive and difficult to control. Climate change will likely support conditions that allow existing invasive species to flourish and new ones to establish. Prevention and control of invasive species will help to maintain healthy and resilient ecosystems. To support region-wide invasive species management efforts, Metro Vancouver, the Invasive Species Council of Metro Vancouver, Diamond Head Consulting and the Invasive Species Council of British Columbia have created locally-appropriate best management practices (BMPs) for several high-priority species found in the Metro Vancouver region. These guides provide a compendium of technical guidance that has been tested by many researchers and operations experts. This presentation will review the content (and planned future additions) of the BMPs, and discuss how they are contributing to region-wide efforts to increase awareness about invasive species.

Moderator: Kari Tyler

Presenters: Trevor Murdock, Robert LePage, Angie Woo and Ralph Wells

When professionals decide to adapt to a new climate, a common desire is for future projections in precisely the same variables and data formats currently used. Adapting to climate change will require more fundamental changes in habits and practice than this.
 
First, adapting to climate change involves climate conditions that continue to change with time throughout the lifespan of most infrastructure. This represents an unprecedented design challenge. Second, while trying to provide future information in the same form as used before is a good first step, the next step is to consider the use of information and heuristics in different ways than in the past. Following a brief slide presentation, several concrete examples in the energy efficiency and health care buildings sectors will highlight these next two layers of the adaptation onion.

Calling on the Collective Skills of Aboriginal Peoples

Moderator: Neil MacEachern

Presenters: Dany Johnny Chilton and Samuel Castonguay

The dangers of climate change are rapidly increasing on the Atikamekw’s lands, as the community transitions from a nomadic way of life to a predominantly sedentary lifestyle.

The Atikamekw Nation Council has decided to develop a traditional approach to resolve both of these current problems. The project involves establishing a holistic approach in describing how the community functions  to collectively teach its members to rapidly adapt to the changes which affect it. We want to develop a collective ability to read and interpret the signs of the sociosphere, similar to the approach put in place for Notcimik. The aim is to enable community members to detect the dangers and opportunities they encounter. The first intended result is to create a collective ability to identify and understand issues of the highest priority related to the community’s functioning and development, as well as to identify workable, potential solutions.

Fire with Fire: Braiding Indigenous and Scientific Knowledges of Fire Management using Participatory Video Method to Enhance Climate Change Resilience

Presenters: Laura Lynes (moderator), Alvin First Rider, Kyra Northwest and Marley Kozak

Fire with Fire — an initiative supported by Natural Resources Canada’s Building Regional Adaptation Capacity and Expertise (BRACE) Program — is engaging multiple partners in a novel approach to adaptation by developing the capacity of Indigenous communities to share, exchange and validate their knowledge and perspectives on wildfire through participatory video — a proven tool to document and share Indigenous knowledge that can inform local, regional and international adaptation efforts and policy.

This session will feature a short video from a participating Indigenous community, an overview of lessons learned to date, and information on how Fire with Fire is developing capacity, processes, methodologies and tools to enable the best available Indigenous and scientific knowledge for climate change adaptation decisions at local, regional and provincial scales. Disasters, such as wildfires, can also be a hook for a larger conversation about climate change adaptation, which is being demonstrated through the initiative.

Moderator: Cameron Hunter

Presenters: Amber Fletcher, Maureen Reed and Angie Dazé

The impacts of climate change will affect people in different ways, depending on their location and how they sustain their livelihoods, as well as a range of other factors including gender, class and ethnicity. If these issues are not considered in planning and decision-making, there is a risk that adaptation investments will be ineffective, particularly in reaching the most vulnerable communities and groups.

This session will draw on empirical research and practical experience in Canada and Sub-Saharan Africa to explore how gender and other social factors influence experiences of climate change and capacity to adapt. Three panelists will share insights from ongoing research on gender and climate change adaptation, including the intersectionality of gender with other sociocultural characteristics. The presentations will be followed by an interactive dialogue, where participants will discuss common themes and what can be learned from these examples to inform gender-responsive approaches to adaptation going forward.

Presenters: Kerri Klein (moderator), Rebekka Schnitter, Dr. Chris Buse, Dr. Paivi Abernathy and Denni Clement

Climate change will affect all of us, but some communities and populations are at greater risk of experiencing health impacts from a changing climate. We know that our social and physical environments matter in determining our exposure to risk, but also our ability to respond and build resilience. Factors such as housing, income, social support networks and community capacity all affect our ability to respond and adapt to climate change.

This interactive workshop will explore what health equity means in the face of climate change and consider approaches that can inform adaptation actions which can reduce negative health impacts and increase local resilience.