Castlegar highlighted in regional climate change workshop
By Kyra Hoggan
Castlegar is being hailed as a regional leader in climate change adaptation, particularly during a two-day workshop Thursday and today at the Complex, an event which has drawn civic leaders from across the West Kootenay.
“Castlegar has really shown tremendous leadership in this area; both staff and elected officials,” said Kate Mahoney, coordinator of Columbia Basin Trust’s Community Action on Climate Change Initiative. She said Castlegar has been working for years on ways to mitigate and prevent damage due to extreme weather events, and is now sharing that expertise with other municipalities across the basin.
The free interactive workshop, entitled ‘Extreme Weather and Infrastructure: How Resilient is Your Community?”, boasts as many as 40 attendees from as far away as Fernie and Cranbrook, including contingents from Nelson and Trail. It’s being hosted by CBT, Engineers Canada and the City of Castlegar.
Mahoney said city staff took attendees on a tour of drainage sites, showing examples of some of the preventative and remedial work they’ve done in anticipation of extreme weather events.
“They really highlighted the work they’ve done around maintenance and operations, and as a result were able to prevent much more extensive damage (from this summer’s flooding),” she said.
She also said it’s a compelling issue for local communities as they grapple with the likelihood of increased problems such as this year’s dramatic flooding.
“There’s a lot of evidence that we’ll be seeing an increase in extreme events,” she said, explaining the need for such a technical workshop exploring development, infrastructure and engineering – even agriculture – designed to create more resilient communities.
“We’re looking at, what are the likely impacts and what are the adaptation measures we can take,” she said, adding CBT recently published a report called ‘From Dialogue to Action’ that offers a really pragmatic summary report that anyone can download from http://www.cbt.org/uploads/pdf/DialoguetoAction_Final_lo-res.pdf (or get hard copies at the CBT office in downtown Castlegar).
Nodelcorp Consultants also presented – they developed the Public Infrastructure Engineering Vulnerability Committee Protocol in concert with Engineers Canada, and work all over the country and internationally to help make community infrastructure more resilient.
Folded into the two days was also the Climate Action Exchange hosted by the BC Climate Secretariat, “a one-day event (that) will be packed with information, ideas and discussion to help prepare the region for climate change impacts while reducing carbon emissions and energy use.”
For more information on Castlegar’s climate change action plan, visit http://www.cbt.org/uploads/pdf/Castlegar_Climate_Change_Adaptation_Report_final.pdf
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