Climate Change Working Group
Chair: Stéphane Laviolette
The Centretown Community Association has a new working group to proactively address issues affecting the livability and resiliency of Centretown. Please join us if you have an interest in seeing what we can do as individuals and as a community to influence City Hall decisions on upcoming key initiatives that have climate implications and will set the direction for intensification in Centretown in the years to come. We actively seek your input and ideas to make our neighbourhood more resilient to climate.
We actively seek your input and ideas to make our neighbourhood more resilient to climate. We will also be working with other community associations to amplify our activities through joint action.
Interested in joining this working group? Become a CCA member today and contact us at ClimateChangeWG@centretowncitizens.ca
TERMS OF REFERENCE
Name of Committee: Climate Change Working Group
Type: Working Group
Purpose: The Climate Change Working Group (CCWG) seeks to promote community action for the mitigation of and adaptation to climate change through education, engagement and strategic partnerships.
Rationale: Climate change is a global, human-induced problem with impacts on our economy, health, safety, food security, biodiversity, weather patterns and more. Communities bear the brunt of climate impacts. Centretown, in particular, is facing more frequent and intense heat, precipitation and storms which will result in increased health risks, especially for the vulnerable, and increased damage to infrastructure.
Objectives: The CCWG seeks to:
Organize events to educate the community and its members about climate change impacts;
Promote practical actions for the mitigation of and adaptation to climate change;
Work with the City to increase the climate resiliency of Centretown;
Create strategic partnerships with community members and businesses to advance the working group’s activities.
Collaborate with other CCA committees and working groups on initiatives where mandates overlap with climate-related issues
Composition: The CCWG is composed of a Chair, a Co-Chair and any resident of Centretown or elsewhere interested in joining the working group.
Meetings: The CCWG meets virtually on the second Wednesday of every month. Agendas and minutes are prepared and distributed by the Chair and/or Co-Chair. No quorum is required. The Working Group communicates using its CCA email account between meetings.
Reporting: The CCWG reports to the CCA Board through the Planning Committee and provides a written report as required.
Resources and budget: The CCWG will have access to the CCA Zoom account for meetings and any consultations that form part of the scope of work. Any budgetary requests shall be approved by the CCA Board.
CAFES' Climate Resiliency Community Dialogue Report
Between May 12th and June 29th, 2023, the Community Associations for Environmental Sustainability (CAFES) in collaboration with the City of Ottawa hosted eleven Climate Resiliency Community Dialogue sessions with approximately 330 participants and 70 volunteers. The objective was to hear from communities across Ottawa to inform the City's Climate Resiliency Strategy and programming, recognizing that people will face different impacts based on many factors including geographic location, age, gender, race, and income.
Each session included introductions, climate briefing information, break-out table discussions on concerns and risk responses, report-backs and concluding remarks. For most of the workshops, climate risks were presented in a framework of four climate hazard areas : extreme heat, changing seasons, more rainfall and extreme weather events. The Climate Change Working Group was proud to co-host one of the sessions with the Dalhousie Community Association on June 13, 2023.
Please consult CAFES' final report and annexes on these community dialogues here.
Climate Resiliency Panel Discussion
Our most recent initiative was a collaboration with the Glebe Community Association to host a Climate Resiliency Panel Discussion on November 17, 2022. Four panelists addressed what Centretown residents can do to climate proof their homes and community and provided practical tips on what can be done on an individual and community level.
Here is the full recording of the event and the presentations are below.
Andy Kenney, Professor Emeritus, U of T Forestry Faculty
Note that this is a video since Andy recorded the audio over his presentation to make up for being cut off by poor internet connection.
Interested in joining this working group? Become a CCA member today and contact us at ClimateChangeWG@centretowncitizens.ca