Canada’s new climate managed retreat guide for municipal leaders is necessary

The risk of climate impacts are increasing and municipalities are bearing the brunt of adaptation

As our shared climate changes, our historic inaction necessarily brings a greater need for adaptation to change instead of prevention of it. Countries, sub-national governments and cities around the world are struggling with how to deal with slow-moving, multi-generation tsunamis. Cities on the coasts of oceans and the banks of rivers have been experiencing the challenges of climate change already, and now permafrost is thawing and wildfires are encroaching.

How can municipal leaders, whether elected, appointed or voluntary, cope with the accelerating rate of change and increasing risks to their fellow citizens and infrastructure necessary to the economic and social well-being of their towns and cities?

That was the question that National Resources Canada (NRCan) posed early in 2020. I was privileged to be part of the team that won the contract to assist NRCan and their cross-Canada advisory body to shape Canada’s guide for leaders, working through Gevity Consulting with Patrick Saunders-Hastings, Director of Life Sciences with the firm, and Brent Doberstein, PhD and a research professor focused on…