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Building Municipal Resilience in Central Ontario

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BUILDING MUNICIPAL RESILIENCE IN CENTRAL ONTARIO FINAL CONFERENCE REPORT May 20 & 21, 2015 Holiday Inn Hotel and Conference Centre 20 Fairview Road Barrie, ON Building Municipal Resilience in Central Ontario City of Barrie The City of Barrie is central Ontario’s premier waterfront city. It is located on the west shore of beautiful Lake Simcoe, and boasts an expansive beach-lined waterfront overlooking Kempenfelt Bay. An abundance of parkland, totaling over 90 parks and 300 hectares, are scattered throughout the city. With a population of over 136,000, Barrie has been designated an Urban Growth Centre by the Province of Ontario due to its emergence as a bedroom community for nearby Toronto. The City is committed to providing its residents with opportunities to enjoy an enhanced and secure quality of life in a prosperous and ecologically sustainable community. www.barrie.ca Ontario Centre for Climate Impacts and Adaptation Resources (OCCIAR) OCCIAR is a university-based resource hub for researchers and stakeholders and provides information on climate change impacts and adaptation. The Centre communicates the latest research on climate change impacts and adaptation, liaises with partners across Canada to encourage adaptation to climate change and aids in the development and application of tools to assist with municipal adaptation. The Centre is also a hub for climate change impacts and adaptation activities, events and resources. www.climateOntario.ca Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC) Established in 1964, IBC is the national industry association representing Canada’s private home, auto and business insurers. Its member companies represent 90% of the Canadian property and casualty insurance market. IBC works on a number of fronts to increase public understanding of home, auto and business insurance. www.ibc.ca Acknowledgements The City of Barrie would like to thank the Insurance Bureau of Canada for their support for this conference, and the Ontario Centre for Climate Impacts and Adaptation Resources for their help in preparing materials and organizing the conference. A special thank you to those who gave presentations at the conference, and to those who participated in the two day event. For more information on Building Municipal Resilience in Central Ontario, please contact: Lauren Wild Administration Assistant Office of the Mayor, City of Barrie 705-739-4220 ext. 5053 [email protected] 1 | Final Report TABLE OF CONTENTS 1.0 Overview ................................................................................................................................................. 3 2.0 Agenda .................................................................................................................................................... 4 3.0 Presenters ............................................................................................................................................... 6 4.0 Presentation Summaries ....................................................................................................................... 15 4.1 Keynote Presentation (David Phillips, Environment Canada) ........................................................... 15 4.2 Welcome (Mayor Jeff Lehman, City of Barrie & Doug DeRabbie, Insurance Bureau of Canada) ..... 16 4.3 The Burlington Flood (Mayor Rick Goldring, City of Burlington) ...................................................... 16 4.4 MRAT: Fighting Urban Flooding (Sally Turney, Insurance Bureau of Canada) .................................. 18 4.5 City of Barrie Case Study: Building Municipal Resilience (Jacqueline Weston, City of Barrie) ......... 19 4.6 Building Municipal Resilience to Future Storms (Heather Auld, Risk Science International) ........... 20 4.7 When the Bough Breaks: Helping municipalities prioritize infrastructure investment to build resilient wastewater and stormwater systems (Darla Campbell, Ontario Coalition for Sustainable Infrastructure) .................................................................................................................................. 22 4.8 Preparing for Severe Weather Events (Barney Owens, Office of the Fire Marshal and Emergency Management) ................................................................................................................................... 23 4.9 Building Municipal Resilience in a Changing Climate (Paul Kovacs, Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction) ........................................................................................................................................ 24 4.10 Can We Build Disaster Resilient Communities? A New Look at Wind Effects on Houses (Dr. Gregory A Kopp, University of Western Ontario) ........................................................................................... 25 4.11 Emergency Management Resilience (Jeff Weber, Barrie Fire and Emergency Services) ............... 26 4.12 Climate Change Overview (Dr. David Pearson, Laurentian University & Allan Douglas, OCCIAR) . 27 4.13 Wetland Infrastructure: Natural Resilience in a Changing Climate (Alexandra Service, Ducks Unlimited Canada) ............................................................................................................................ 29 4.14 Chippewas of Georgina Island Climate Change Adaptation Program Overview (Kerry-Ann Charles, Georgina Island First Nation) ............................................................................................................ 30 4.15 Climate Change: Managing Risk (Mike Walters, Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority) .... 31 4.16 Closing Comments (Mayor Jeff Lehman, City of Barrie) ................................................................. 32 Appendix I: Delegate Package Information ................................................................................................ 33 | 2 Building Municipal Resilience in Central Ontario 1.0 OVERVIEW 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. With this in mind, 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 this special two-day conference – Building Municipal Resilience in Central Ontario. The conference was attended by approximately 60 municipal representative including elected officials, planners, engineers, public works, and emergency managers, and members of the provincial government and NGO’s. The conference presented 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. The main take-home message form the event was that climate change is here, and collaborative action must be taken now in order to help our communities become more resilient to extreme weather events. 3 | Final Report 2.0 AGENDA Wednesday, May 20 (Michael and Marion’s, 89 Bayfield Street, Barrie, ON) 6:30pm – 7:00pm Registration Open, Networking and Cocktails at the Side Door 7:00pm – 7:15pm Welcome by Mayor Lehman (City of Barrie) 7:15pm – 7:20pm Welcome by Doug DeRabbie (Insurance Bureau of Canada) 7:20pm – 8:30pm Dinner Service Begins 7:30pm – 8:30pm Keynote: David Phillips (Environment Canada) Thursday, May 21 (Holiday Inn – Hotel and Conference Centre, 20 Fairview Road, Barrie, ON) 8:00am – 8:20am Breakfast and Registration Churchill Ballroom SOUTH 8:20am – 8:25am Welcome by Mayor Lehman (City of Barrie) Churchill Ballroom SOUTH Welcome by Doug DeRabbie (Insurance Bureau of 8:25am – 8:30am Churchill Ballroom SOUTH Canada) Morning Keynote: Mayor Rick Goldring (City of 8:30am – 9:15am Churchill Ballroom SOUTH Burlington) Asset Management / Infrastructure Churchill Ballroom SOUTH Sally Turney (Insurance Bureau of Canada) Session #1 9:15am – 10:15am Emergency Management Barney Owens (Office of the Fire Marshal and Churchill Ballroom NORTH Emergency Management) Asset Management / Infrastructure Churchill Ballroom SOUTH Session #2 Jacqueline Weston (City of Barrie) 10:15am – 11:15am Emergency Management Churchill Ballroom NORTH Paul Kovacs (Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction) 11:15am – 11:30am Morning Break Asset Management / Infrastructure Churchill Ballroom SOUTH Heather Auld (Risk Sciences International) Session #3 11:30am – 12:30pm Emergency Management Dr. Greg Kopp (University of Western Ontario, Institute Churchill Ballroom NORTH for Catastrophic Loss Reduction) 12:30pm – 1:30pm Lunch Break Churchill Ballroom SOUTH | 4 Building Municipal Resilience in Central Ontario Lunch Keynote: Dr. David Pearson (Laurentian 12:45pm – 1:30pm Churchill Ballroom SOUTH University) and Al Douglas (OCCIAR) Panel Discussion: Al Douglas (OCCIAR) 1:30pm – 2:00pm Churchill Ballroom SOUTH Dr. David Pearson (Laurentian University) Mayor Jeff Lehman (City of Barrie) Asset Management / Infrastructure Darla Campbell (Ontario Coalition
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