JASPER – Council was presented with an action plan to help the municipality become more resilient to climate hazards and better prepare for climate risks.
Council is expected to approve Jasper’s Climate Adaptation Action Plan as presented during its next meeting on July 8.
Mona El Dabee, energy and environment manager, explained on Tuesday (June 24) how the action plan specifically targets Jasper’s highest risks: wildfires, wildfire smoke, extreme heat, freezing rain and glacial retreat.
“Our plan aims to help create a path towards a stronger and more adaptable community with proposed actions that will support the community in implementing measure that reduce potential impacts from climate-related events and hazards that pose a threat,” El Dabee said.
This action plan comes nearly a year after the Jasper wildfire, which destroyed a third of the townsite and forced over 20,000 people to evacuate. The disaster was the second costliest fire event in Canadian history, with insured damage now estimated to be $1.23 billion.
Heat events, meanwhile, are responsible for the greatest loss of life in terms of weather-related natural disasters, according to the Canadian Disaster Database.
The plan outlines 28 key actions. The next steps in the climate adaptation planning process are implementation and monitoring.
Some examples of high-priority, short-term actions relate to wildfire prevention, backup power systems for critical infrastructure, FireSmart building upgrades, HVAC system upgrades, cooling centres and clear air shelters.
The plan also recommends park and public space management to include shade structures and cooling spaces as well as education campaigns and strategies.
Mayor Richard Ireland was in support of the action plan but said the term “mitigation” rather than “adaptation” made more sense for actions such as FireSmart activities. He also wanted the need to preserve Jasper’s economic foundation reflected in the vision statement, noting how the wildfire had disrupted the visitor economy last summer.
“There will be costs [to these key actions], and it’s important to know one of the benefits is maintaining our local visitor economy, which is foundational,” Ireland said.
El Dabee replied they could revise the vision statement but noted that “mitigation” in climate literature typically referred to actions that reduced greenhouse gas emissions rather that the effects of climate change.
Coun. Kathleen Waxer asked why extreme cold wasn’t included among the highest climate risks to Jasper. El Dabee replied that extreme cold was not rated as high as the others in the risk assessment.
Coun. Wendy Hall later added that the lack of snow had a direct impact on the visitor economy during the winter season.
Internal resources were used to prepare this action plan, and resources to implement the plan will need to be allocated in future work planning and budgeting processes. Some of the items will also require partners to act on.
Ireland asked if each action item could include an estimated cost and an estimated cost of inaction.
CAO Bill Given said the cost of inaction would likely be difficult to quantify.
“I think administration would agree that if we don’t do these things, individuals, organizations and the community would face greater costs in the future,” Given said. “Quantifying that, even in an order of magnitude, starts to become more subjective and a bit more challenging, from my perspective.”
El Dabee added that other municipalities often narrowed down the list to several items and wrote a more detailed page on each one.
