UPEI hosts Canada’s launch of National Adaptation Strategy at Canadian Centre for Climate Change and Adaptation
Against the backdrop of St. Peter’s Bay, the Honourable Bill Blair, President of the King’s Privy Council for Canada and Minister of Emergency Preparedness; the Honourable Ginette Petitpas Taylor, Minister of Official Languages and Minister responsible for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency; and the Honourable Lawrence MacAulay, Minister of Veterans Affairs, Associate Minister of Defence, and MP for Cardigan launched the National Adaptation Strategy at UPEI’s Canadian Centre for Climate Change and Adaptation on November 24. The ministers also announced the federal government’s action and investment plan for the immediate future on behalf of the Honourable Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Environment and Climate Change.
The announcement includes $1.6 billion in new federal funding commitments to help protect communities from coast to coast to coast. Funding will help municipalities and townships build public infrastructures of the future, such as roads and bridges, that can withstand flooding, make sure Canadians have access to the information they need to stay safe during wildfires, and enable engagement and work with Indigenous communities on the development of region-specific health initiatives linked to changing climate conditions. The additional funding builds on existing federal commitments to adaptation, disaster resilience, and disaster response that total more than $8 billion to date.
Through the first-of-its-kind Government of Canada Adaptation Action Plan, which outlines clear federal adaptation objectives and targets in order to focus policy and spending on measurable results, the federal government is delivering nearly 70 actions to address both immediate and future climate risks to Canada.
UPEI President Greg Keefe served as master of ceremonies for the event and Elder Judy Clark, UPEI’s Elder-in-Residence gave an opening prayer. Dr. Aitazaz Farooque, Associate Dean of the UPEI School of Climate Change and Adaptation, provided closing remarks at the announcement and then moderated a round table discussion with Ministers Blair and MacAulay and several climate change and adaptation students and faculty members.
