Association of Manitoba Municipalities - Climate Change Local Action and Adaptation Plans (CCLAAPs)

Rural communities are often late adopters in the development of climate change mitigation and adaptation plans. This reality forms the basis of The Climate Change Location Action and Adaptation Plan (CCLAAP), an initiative championed by the Association of Manitoba Municipalities (AMM) and Eco-West, a sustainable development facilitator. The initiative will help fifteen Manitoban communities develop GHG plans that will pinpoint concrete actions to mitigate the risks of climate change, provide road maps for GHG emission reductions, create strategies for climate change preparedness, and identify green projects tailored to suit each community's particular needs. The plans will take into account existing municipal plans and strategies in the participating communities, such as the South Central Planning District Development Plan, to help realize the larger visions and objectives of the communities’ sustainable development goals. The initiative will bring the fifteen participating municipalities through Milestones 1, 2 and 3 of the Partners for Climate Protection (PCP) framework. These communities, which range from 750 to 4,500 residents, include the RMs of Alexander, St. François Xavier, Stuartburn, Elton, Minto-Odanah, North-Cypress-Langford, Ellice-Archie, Victoria and Ste. Anne, the towns of Stonewall, Altona, Neepawa, Minnedosa and Carberry, and the municipality of Rhineland. The GHG emissions reduction plans will establish municipal and corporate GHG emissions inventories designed to help forecast the short, medium and long-term objectives for energy, waste and water management, sustainable transportation, land use and brownfield remediation. These communities will learn how to mitigate and adapt to climate change by including specific actions, project teams, timelines for implementation, and estimated costs into GHG plans. A second climate profile component will develop regional climate profiles to assess potential impacts on the communities, as well as potential vulnerabilities, over the next 50 to 80 years. After the initial inventory process, Eco-West will continue to assist municipalities in creating targets and tracking and measuring their emissions on an ongoing basis. The climate adaptation processes of the initiative are identical to those described in the Building Adaptive and Resilient Communities (BARC) methodology (from initial consultation to project implementation and the five year GHG inventory review). Moreover, the Prairie Climate Centre will provide an interactive ‘Prairie Climate Atlas’ tool that will communicate climate data and severity of climate changes in the Prairie Provinces. Before the plans take place, there will be a series of municipal and public consultations in the form of in-person meetings and workshops, as well as questionnaires distributed throughout the community and on-line. This process will help the consultants identify, evaluate and prioritize potential projects that will meet the GHG reduction targets. Each participating community will have its own CCLAAP to be shared through public meetings and municipal websites. (Project description from original funding application)