Parliamentary Committee Notes: National Adaptation Strategy
Issue
Release of the Final National Adaptation Strategy and Updated Government of Canada Adaptation Action Plan
Proposed Response
- Hazards such as floods, wildfires, and extreme heat are increasing in frequency and severity, and represent a mounting threat to the safety of Canadians and the economic viability of Canadian businesses and communities.
- The Government of Canada is committed to building resilience to these hazards, especially as we witness the impacts of floods and fires across Canada. This is why the Government of Canada developed the Country’s first National Adaptation Strategy to support a shared vision for a resilient Canada.
- The Strategy adopts a whole-of-society approach to unite all orders of government, Canadians, Indigenous Peoples, the private sector, academia, and civil society, to align collective actions for faster, coordinated, and systemic adaptation to the impacts of climate change.
- To help develop the National Adaptation Strategy, Public Safety Canada co-chaired an Advisory Table on disaster resilience and security, with the Insurance Bureau of Canada to advance priorities on addressing floods, heat events, wildfires and recovery.
- The final National Adaptation Strategy and updated Government of Canada Adaptation Action Plan were released on June 27th, 2023, following a consultation period with provinces, territories and National Indigenous Organizations.
- The National Adaptation Strategy will be implemented through Federal, Provincial and Territorial (FPT) bilateral action plans and will also support Indigenous adaptation action.
- In October 2023, the Government of Canada co-hosted the Adaptation Futures conference which included sessions focused on ensuring the successful implementation of the National Adaptation Strategy.
Backgound
Climate-change driven hazards are increasing in both frequency and costs, and are a mounting threat to the safety and economic viability of Canadian businesses and communities, as demonstrated by recent disaster events across the country, including widespread floods and wildfires across the country, as well as large-scale events such as Hurricane Fiona.
Reducing disaster risks, particularly through proactive adaptation, has proven to be more economical than the cost of response and rebuilding. Building disaster resilience is multi-faceted and requires effective governance, whole-of-society collaboration and expertise, strong communication on disaster risk and tools to help address climate change. In order to help control escalating disaster costs, Canada is in the process of shifting its approach to managing disaster risks. This involves moving from a reactive government-focused model to a proactive whole-of-society framework with a focus on disaster risk reduction, prevention and mitigation.
In December 2020, as part of its strengthened climate plan, A Healthy Environment and a Healthy Economy, the Government of Canada committed to develop Canada’s first National Adaptation Strategy (NAS) with provincial, territorial and municipal governments, Indigenous Peoples, and other key partners. In January 2021, the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness was tasked to work with the Minister of Natural Resources, the Minister of Environment and Climate Change, the Minister of Infrastructure and Communities and the Special Representative to the Prairies to develop a national climate change adaptation strategy.
The NAS establishes a shared vision for climate resilience in Canada, key priorities for collaboration, and a framework for measuring progress at the national level. The Strategy offers the opportunity to unite actors across Canada through shared priorities, cohesive action, and a whole-of-Canada approach to reducing climate change risks.
While Environment and Climate Change Canada leads this work, other federal Departments stood up Advisory Tables to lead work under thematic pillars. Each Advisory Table has been co-chaired by an organization outside of the federal government: Health and Wellbeing (Health Canada); Resilient Infrastructure (Infrastructure Canada); Thriving Natural Environment (Environment and Climate Change Canada); Strong and Resilient Economy (Natural Resources Canada); and Disaster Resilience and Security (Public Safety Canada).
The Disaster Resilience and Security Advisory Table, co-chaired with the Insurance Bureau of Canada, consists of diverse stakeholders, including representatives from National Indigenous Organizations, non-governmental organizations, academia, industry and others. Advisory Table engagement has demonstrated that stakeholders are looking for significant, immediate and tangible actions in the area of climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction, especially as we see events unfolding in our country which demonstrate the growing impacts of climate-related disasters to Canadians. The Advisory Table identified actions to strengthen Canada’s preparedness and readiness to disaster events with a focus on floods, heat events, wildfires and recovery.
The Advisory Table built on existing work underway for the Emergency Management Strategy for Canada (EMS), which establishes FPT priorities to strengthen the resilience of Canadian society by 2030 and Canada’s ability to assess risks and to prevent/mitigate, prepare for, respond to and recover from disasters. These EMS initiatives include the National Risk Profile, flood risk management, emergency preparedness and capacity building.
The first iteration of the NAS was released alongside the Government of Canada Adaptation Action Plan (GOCAAP) on November 24th, 2022. The GOCAAP is the federal plan to implement the NAS through organizing federal efforts on adaptation and providing an inventory of federal adaptation actions. In the GOCAAP, the Government of Canada commits to better integrating climate change adaptation with disaster risk reduction by improving resilience, prioritizing disaster preparedness, prevention and mitigation and improving whole-of-society participation.
Following the November launch, a final consultation period was undertaken to review the goals, targets and objectives in the NAS with provinces, territories, and National Indigenous Organizations. A final NAS and GOCAAP were released on June 27th, 2023. Moving forward, FPT bilateral action plans will be developed, and the NAS will also support Indigenous adaptation action.
In October 2023, the Government of Canada co-hosted the Adaptation Futures conference, which included sessions focused on successful implementation of the NAS. Minister Sajjan, President of the King’s Privy Council for Canada and Minister of Emergency Preparedness and Minister responsible for the Pacific Economic Development Agency of Canada attended.
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