Agenda

Day One: Thursday, September 28, 2023

10:15 EDT

30 min
Keynote Address

EM in the Canadian Context - Toward a Resilient 2030!

10:45 EDT

45 min
Jill McIntosh

Climate Change and Government of Canada’s Revamped Approach to Business Continuity Management (BCM) and Resiliency Practices / Update from Public Safety Canada

Jill McIntosh, Deputy Chief Security Officer (DCSO) and Senior Director, Government of Canada, Continuity and Resilience Management, Public Safety Canada

  • What is the Centre for Resilience and Continuity Management (CRCM)
  • CRCM context and mandate
  • The challenge of climate change
  • Building resilience in a climate change environment
  • Planning for what you don’t know

11:30 EDT

45 min
Jeffrey MacDonald

Climate Change and Adaptation Strategy - From Knowledge to Action!

Jeffrey MacDonald, Director General, Climate Change Adaptation Directorate, Environment and Climate Change Canada

Stewart Cohen; Former Senior Researcher, Climate Research Division, Environment and Climate Change Canada

Michael Galin, Director, Risk Management, Telus

  • Government of Adaptation Action Plan and Strategy
  • Reactive and anticipatory adaptation
  • Using science to take action before the worst impacts of change are incurred
  • Need for: Resilient infrastructure, healthier communities, enhanced biodiversity and nature conservation, a more resilient economy and workers
  • Need to move from static framing of climate risks to a more dynamic framing that considers cascading interactions, feedbacks and side-effects
  • Including extreme events and ‘unknown unknowns’ as part of effective infrastructure design and management, organizational resilience and continuity systems and processes
  • Examples of communities and sectors adapting to a changing climate across Canada
  • Steps Canadians are taking to understand how climate change affects them and the solutions they find to adapt and increase their resilience.
  • Assessing the costs and benefits of climate change adaptation

12:15 EDT

45 min

Break

13:00 EDT

45 min
Beth Gooding

Impact of Climate Change on Canada’s Emergency Management Strategy – Are You Addressing What You Should Be?

Beth Gooding, Director, Public Safety Service, Emergency and Protective Services, City of Ottawa

Climate change will continue to increase the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, straining emergency management capacities and budgets across Canada.  This session will cover the ways in which climate change fits into Canada’s Emergency Management Strategy Framework.

  • The linkages between climate change and emergency management, and the need for all areas of society to work together to enhance resilience 
  • Understand the shift in focus toward proactive prevention/mitigation efforts and forward-looking recovery measures
  • Strengthening the resilience of Canadian society by 2030
  • Roles and responsibilities of FPT governments and partners
  • What do resilient communities look like?
  • Priority areas of activity:
    • Enhance whole-of-society collaboration and governance to strengthen resilience
    • Improve understanding of disaster risks in all sectors of society
    • Increase focus on whole-of-society disaster prevention and mitigation activities
    • Strengthen recovery efforts by building back better to minimize the impacts of future disasters

13:45 EDT

45 min

Indigenous Science – Learning from the Indigenous Community

Myrle Ballard, Director, Indigenous Science Division (ISD), Environment and Climate Change Canada

  • Fostering awareness of Indigenous Science
  • Understanding Indigenous Science as a distinct, time-tested and methodological knowledge system that will enhance and complement Western science
  • Bridging bringing Indigenous Science awareness to the Western science inside the department.
  • Braiding people on the land will be first to identify a change in how the water or wildlife look.
  • Weaving Using Indigenous Science as a tool in the department’s approach to environmental issues and species management

14:30 EDT

15 min

Break

14:45 EDT

45 min

Climate Change BCM and Emergency Management Case Study

  • Learn from experience in British Columbia
  • BC’s EMCR business continuity plan
  • EMCR’s role supporting local government and First Nations
  • Activities and progress of the committee of federal and provincial ministers who have worked together and with Indigenous leadership to guide immediate and ongoing support to British Columbia families, businesses, and communities affected by extreme weather events

15:30 EDT

45 min
Ann Wyganowski

Business Continuity Management: Upgrade Your Plan with a Focus on Climate Change

Ann Wyganowski, Vice President, HZX Business Continuity Planning Instructor, Disaster Recovery Institute Canada

Business Continuity Management integrates the disciplines of Emergency Response, Crisis Management, Information Technology Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity (organizational/operational relocation). Risks, the impacts of business interruption and their frequency have changed dramatically as a result of climate change but many organizations have not been quick to update their plans accordingly, lulled into a sense of complacency after the pandemic forced hybrid work environment. Is your BCM programme upgraded and fine-tuned to deal with Climate Change and surprising outcomes? Topics covered will include:.

  • Risk assessments that should be on your radar screen
  • Impacts to your Business Impact Analysis and prioritization
  • Real life case studies and lessons learned
  • Impacts to existing continuity strategies and the need for elasticity
  • Ideas for viable exercises and tests to ensure plan sustainability

16:15 EDT

45 min

Impact of Climate Change on Your Supply Chain: Become Future Resilient

Chris Snider, Principal, The Snider Group Consulting

Present view of climate change impact on supply chains

  • How it has exposed the fragility with the global movement of goods
  • Handling a complex supply chain with rudimentary tools

Future view: expected climate change impact; roadblocks & how to manage them

  • Increase severe weather events and managing supply route disruptions
  • Population migration on supply workforce & customers
  • Animal/insect migration and impact on natural harvest supplies (evasive species)
  • Permafrost deterioration and arable (farmable) land for product supplies
  • Infrastructure changes needed to support changing landscape
  • Changing supply routes & their impact on the movement of goods (Arctic)

Planning to secure your supply chain for the future

  • On-shore vs. Near-Shore vs. Off-Shore suppliers
  • Developing the best risk management team and end-to-end understanding of your supply/value chain through digital mapping
  • Managing the balance in your supply chain between risk and cost

17:00 EDT

End of Day One

Day Two: Friday, September 29, 2023

10:15 EDT

30 min
Jeffrey MacDonald

BCM and Enhanced Resilience: The Canadian Context

Jeffrey MacDonald, Director General, Climate Change Adaptation Directorate, Environment and Climate Change Canada

Adapting to climate change is not only something government should do, it is something government must do, moving faster and going further than ever before. This session will cover relevant international agreements and federal government policy for a full understanding of BCM and enhanced resilience relating to climate change in the Canadian context:

  • International agreements
  • Continued collaboration, engagement, and the use of science and evidence-based decision-making.
  • Whole-of-government/society approach
  • The Canadian Emergency Management Strategy
  • Components of EM: prevention/mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery.
  • The vulnerability of Indigenous Communities
  • The concept of Resilience
  • Federal Provincial and Territorial Action Plan and EM Strategy
  • Priority areas of activity
  • The Strengthened Climate Plan, adopting additional measures to achieve net zero emissions by 2050
  • Accelerating the important work of adapting, responding, mitigating and building resilience

10:45 EDT

45 min

Climate Change Risks & Risk Assessment from a Whole-of-Government Perspective: Top Climate Risks for Canada

Climate Change in Canada is giving rise  to a range of natural and human systems at risk
Need to  intensify government efforts to adapt to climate change and reduce greenhouse gases
Government-wide assessments that could help prioritize  government responses to risks across their activities and operations

Comprehensive examination of climate change risks from a whole-of-government perspective
The top climate risks for Canada and their relative significance

11:30 EDT

45 min

Climate Risk and Financial Institutions / Regulatory Approaches to Climate Risks

  • Impact of climate change on federally regulated financial institutions (FRFIs)
  • OSFI Guide
  • Liability risk
  • Litigation and direct action against financial institutions for failure to manage climate related risk
  • Credit, market, insurance and liquidity risk
  • Strategic, operational and reputational risks
  • Threats to long-term viability
  • Need to address vulnerabilities
  • Approach to be holistic, integrated, and built on reliable empirical data and sound analysis
  • Need for continuous monitoring and improvement, including improving data quality and evolving risk measurement methodologies, governance and risk management practices

12:15 EDT

45 min

Break

13:00 EDT

45 min
Paul Kovacs Scott Vaughan

Building Climate Change Resilient Communities through BCP and Emergency Planning

Moderator: Paul Kovacs, Executive Director, Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction, Western University, The Expert Panel on Climate Change Risks and Adaptation Potential, Council of Canadian Academies

Scott Vaughan, Senior Fellow, International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD)

Community resilience is an attribute of the community as a complex integrated system, describing the ability of its members to draw upon their own inherent strengths and capabilities to absorb the impact of a disruption, to reorganize, change, and learn from the disruption, and to adapt to emergent shocks. Learn:

  • How to increase community resilience
  • Need to acknowledge different needs, resources, capacities, and vulnerabilities of individuals, groups, and communities
  • Consideration of factors such as gender, socio-economic conditions, local community conditions and traditional Indigenous knowledge.

13:45 EDT

60 min
Ryan Smith

Climate Data for Decision Makers: Finding, Analyzing, and Making Sense of Future Climate Projections

Ryan Smith, Canadian Centre for Climate Services

  • Where to find authoritative climate data
  • Tools and resources to help make sense of these data
  • Acknowledging uncertainties in future climate projections
  • Climate data in action: example case studies from the City of Ottawa and Parks Canada

14:30 EDT

15 min

Break

14:45 EDT

45 min
Paul Kovacs

Aiming High - Planning for Resilience and Recovery and Celebrating Local Leadership in Canada (receive an authoritative 5-book series on Resilience and Recovery Across Canada)

Paul Kovacs, Executive Director, Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction, Western University, The Expert Panel on Climate Change Risks and Adaptation Potential, Council of Canadian Academies

  • What we do well
  • Importance of recovery in determining the future
  • Dealing with national, provincial and municipal jurisdictions
  • Recovery toolboxes: sustainable tools and processes
  • Elected officials as change agents

15:30 EDT

45 min

Managing the Risk of Climate Change and Extreme Weather Events on Key Infrastructure (and Your Own Organization): Evidence of Adaptation, Planning and Preparedness: Case Studies

  • Impact of extreme weather and climate change on critical infrastructure
  • How will providers of critical infrastructure and services be impacted and how will this impact affect you and your business?
  • How teams are changing as a result of climate change
  • An overview on how structures are all-hazard focused
  • A model supporting response to extreme weather
  • Climate-change readiness, mitigation efforts BCM and EM
  • Need for investment

16:15 EDT

45 min

Case Study on Preparing for Climate Change

The environment is changing. To address the risks, organizations need to change too.

  • What are the major climate risks for Canadian organizations?
  • Steps for mitigating climate risk
  • Frequent climate risk mistakes and how to avoid them

17:00 EDT

End of Day Two