Adapting Industry to Increasing Climate-Related Catastrophes in Canada

Find out what was discussed – download the post-event summary from our event held on Tuesday 23 April 2024 in Toronto (Scroll down for link)

What was the event about?

In 2023, Canada experienced an unprecedented number of climate-related catastrophes, resulting in total insured losses exceeding CAD $3.1 billion. Increased frequency and severity of disasters including wildfires, flooding, and storms across the country are escalating costs and pose challenges to our infrastructure systems. Cascading impacts have implications for insurance, supply chains, fiscal management, and public health that affect both industry and society. To address these challenges, there is a need to adapt to the climatic changes that are unfolding. Building resilience within our infrastructure systems is essential to ensuring that sectors have the capacity to respond to and withstand the impacts of evolving climate-related hazards.

Discussion points include: 
– An overview post-disaster resilience planning.
– An understanding of how climate data forecasts can enable resilience planning.
– Provision of updates on resilience design standards and procedures; and
– An overview on financial tools that can be used in resilience planning.

With thanks to our speakers:

– Moderator: Danielle Lebre, Advisory Consultant, Climate Change & Sustainability, Mott MacDonald

– Liane Langstaff, Partner, Environmental Law, Gowling WLG LLP

– Shaieree Cottar, PhD Candidate Research Associate, Partners for Action, University of Waterloo

– Andrew Posluns, Senior Director, Corporate Planning, Policy and Research, Canada Infrastructure Bank (CIB)

We’d also like to thank Gowling WLG and Mott MacDonald for co-hosting the event.