Government Responses to Climate Change

Tuesday October 2, 2018

Presenters: Jeff Lehman, Mayor, City of Barrie; Bonnie North, Deputy Leader of the Ontario Green Party; Beate Bowron FCIP, RPP & Gary Davidson FCIP, RPP; Bob Lehman, President of Lehman Associates, Panel Moderator

Mayor Jeff Lehman: The impacts of climate change are already being felt in our backyard, here in the City of Barrie.  While much attention is paid to temperatures, it’s the severity and frequency of severe weather that is having the most immediate effects.  Jeff Lehman will discuss the City of Barrie’s response to climate change, both in terms of Mitigation (how we help reduce GhG emissions) and Adaptation (what we have to do differently now that the impacts are being felt).  With reference to local data, recent storms and weather events, and actions the City is taking, Jeff will also look at the broader response of cities across the world and particularly in eastern Canada to climate change.

Bonnie North: The climate crisis is the biggest threat facing humanity, and there is urgency for all of us to act. By cancelling Ontario’s cap-and-trade program without an alternative plan, and joining the pointless legal battle against a price on greenhouse gas pollution, our government is taking us down a path that is reckless for our economy and our environment.

We need the Ontario government to bring forward a real climate plan that includes a price on greenhouse pollution rather than fighting with the federal government in the courts. We need a real climate plan that supports jobs in the clean economy rather than turning our back on it.

Beate Bowron FCIP, RPP & Gary Davidson FCIP, RPP: Federal and provincial governments can establish policies and programs to mitigate climate change and enable adaptation measures, but all adaptation actions are essentially local.  This presentation highlights a community-based climate change adaptation planning approach, which was first developed in Nunavut, Canada’s Arctic, and then applied to tourism strategies in various regions of the Philippines. The federal government supported the projects through the Canadian Institute of Planners (CIP) and the Canadian Urban Institute (CUI).

Bob Lehman: Moderator

See Biography: Mayor Jeff Lehman, Bonnie North, Beate Bowron, Gary DavidsonBob Lehman