Adapting to Climate Change: An Introduction for Canadian Municipalities

3. Examples: Integraing Climate Change Considerations into Municipal Decision-Making

The examples presented here have been selected to demonstrate how Canadian communities are starting to address climate change adaptation. It is hoped that these examples will help raise awareness of climate change impacts in other communities and provide ideas as to how these challenges might be addressed.

Some examples (Toronto, Halifax, Sept-Îles, Iqaluit) were explicitly inspired by a desire to adapt to climate change. Others represent an effective response to reducing vulnerability to climate change even though this was not the main reason for implementing the initiatives. All exemplify how communities have worked through a decision-making process that directly or indirectly considered climate change adaptation and thereby contributed to improving community capacity for long-term adaptation planning and implementation.

The examples illustrate a range of potential climate change impacts and possible adaptations extracted from municipalities of varying sizes, from across Canada. While the situations presented do not apply to all jurisdictions, each example demonstrates an aspect of integrating adaptation that may prove useful to other municipalities as they assess their vulnerability and develop their own adaptation strategies. These profiles are not intended to serve as case studies, nor do they claim to represent best practices.

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