Saskatchewan Municipal Climate Change Local Action Planning Initative

Eco-Ouest Canada will be carrying out a Municipal Climate Change Local Action Planning initiative with a cohort of six small municipalities in Saskatchewan, including Zenon Park (pop. 194), Tisdale (pop. 3,136), Carrot River (pop. 973), Eston (pop. 1,061) and Humbolt (Pop. 5,869) and the Town of Gravelbourg (Pop. 1,083). The objective of the initiative is to create climate change local action plans for each community that will be used to identify targets and actions for GHG emission reductions, guide the planning and development of local resources, identify concrete actions to mitigate the risks of climate change, develop strategies for climate preparedness and identify green projects tailored to suit each community's particular resiliency or sustainability needs.Eco-Ouest will be working with each of the municipalities to carry out GHG emissions inventories that will ultimately lead to the development of a comprehensive Climate Change Local Action plan for each municipality. The GHG emissions inventories will be designed to collect data on community and municipal energy use as well as solid waste generation in order to estimate GHG emissions in a given year. Eco-Ouest Canada and its consultants will carry out consultations with each municipality, compile data, and determine GHG reduction targets based on the methodology in FCM’s PCP program. Afterwards, community consultations will be held with the municipal councils, local working groups of representatives established by municipalities, and the public at large in order to develop the local action plans, which will cover municipal operations as well as community led initiatives. The climate change local action plans will also identify strategies for climate preparedness. To do this, Eco-Ouest will work with the Prairie Regional Adaptation Collaborative to identify and implement climate adaptation planning approaches. As part of this work, Eco-Ouest will be developing two regional climate profiles (1950 to 1980 and 1990 to present) using Environment Canada Weather data. Global circulation models and local knowledge will be used to predict how weather might change during the next 50-80 years and what the impacts could be on the communities and assess what their vulnerabilities are.The climate change local action planning process will thus be used to identify environmental alternatives and innovative initiatives to stimulate the local economy and reduce municipal operating costs, all based on understanding the sources of GHG emissions and taking steps to reduce them, while at the same time identifying strategies to reduce the risk of climate change-related impacts on the communities. Successful outcomes will enhance the profile of the communities and this approach will continue to be used as a model elsewhere in Saskatchewan and throughout Canada through other Eco-Ouest initiatives.