Climate change is a reality that our community is currently facing. Already, we are seeing how climate change impacts our local infrastructure, economy, and well-being. The City of Niagara Falls is taking a proactive approach to reducing the impacts of a changing climate and extreme weather on the community’s built, social, natural, and economic systems by guiding the development of a Climate Change Adaptation Plan.
Our adaptation planning process is supported by ICLEI Canada https://iclei.org/ and a core team out of our Municipal Works Department and the Mayor and CAO’s Office.
The work undertaken, along with measures that will be implemented once this project is completed, will help the City minimize the negative impacts of climate change by addressing local risks while seizing any local opportunities to increase resilience.
City Departments and community partners have provided input into developing an Adaptation Plan for the whole community from February to August 2023. A draft plan has been developed that will help prepare us for a changing climate and build local resilience.
Check back here over the coming months to participate in the following:
- Developing a vision and goal-setting survey
- Review of the draft Adaptation Plan
- A Community Launch Event
Update: February 9, 2024
The City of Niagara Falls Climate Change Adaptation Implementation Plan was unanimously approved by City Council, in September 2023.
The City team wishes to thank ICLEI Canada, the public and members of our Climate Working Group throughout the community for the time and effort they spent establishing this plan and creating the 41 climate goals and 89 sub-goals. This framework will offer a road map that will guide the City and our partners in the coming months and years to better prepare for and mitigate climate change effects in Niagara Falls.
Looking ahead, the City is establishing an internal “green-team” to steadily move forward on the 41 climate goals for Niagara Falls. Some efforts will be focused on internal systems, others will involve organizational partners, and some, whole-community participation. The trajectory of positive climate adaptation in our community depends on everyone’s support and a continued, dedicated effort to move forward.
View the City's plan in the Important Documents section.
Update: August 24, 2023
The City took a proactive role in convening project stakeholders from across the community to collaboratively create a Plan that will increase the adaptive capacity of Niagara Falls to the impacts of our changing climate.
The Plan development process began in February of this year and followed ICLEI Canada’s BARC (Building Adaptative and Resilient Communities) Milestones 1-3 process, which has been used in hundreds of Canadian Municipalities. Climate projections and data guided the project working group to identify and prioritize which climate change impacts Niagara Falls was most vulnerable and at highest risk to.
A vision, goals and actions were then collectively identified by the project working group and members of the business community to address the impacts Niagara Falls is already or predicted to experience. Community and business members can provide general feedback as well as consider opportunities for engagement with the Plan’s implementation. Comments and feedback on the plan are welcomed on or before Tuesday, September 5, 2023.
Actions within the Plan primarily address adapting to climate change, but also include some first key actions related to mitigating climate change (reducing greenhouse gasses), and working to avoid the unmanageable. Adaptation includes preparing for extreme weather such as floods and extreme heat. The prioritized action details in the Plan lay out the framework that will move this community project from the planning stage to the implementation phase over the coming 5 years.
The draft plan will soon be brought to City Council this Fall.
Public Open House - Tuesday, July 25, 2023, 4:30 - 6:30 pm
MacBain Community Centre - 7150 Montrose Road.
Thank you to all those who attended!
Update: June 15, 2023
A Niagara Falls climate change working group was established in February of this year, consisting of a dedicated network of community members, organizations, City staff and stakeholders. The working group has met for three in-person work sessions and has done additional online survey work, being guided through the process by ICLEI Canada.
The group has:
- Analyzed climate science projections
- Identified impacts to the community
- Refined and prioritized using both a vulnerability assessment and a risk assessment
- Identified the vision, goals and actions that address the prioritized impacts in order to build resilience to climate change in Niagara Falls
The project has also included engagement with the business community, which came together at a Climate Business Breakfast to share insights and concerns that will be a part of the analysis. The event featured a talk from Dr. Blair Feltmate, head of the Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation.
The next steps include:
- A presentation to Senior City Staff
- Prioritizing the long list of actions and developing implementation details will create the backbone of the Plan
The draft Climate Change Adaptation Plan will be completed mid-summer, at which time the public will be able to view the draft Plan. It will be brought to Council soon thereafter.
About ICLEI Canada
ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability is a global network of more than 2,500 local and regional governments committed to sustainable urban development. Active in 125+ countries, they influence sustainability policy and drive local action for low-emission, nature-based, equitable, resilient and circular development.
We want to hear from you!
To learn more or get involved, please get in touch with Carey Campbell at ccampbell@niagarafalls.ca or leave a question or comment below.
Thank you!
Questions & Comments
Do you have a question or comment you'd like to share with the project team? Please use this dialogue box to send in your comments.
Fish stocks are low, little evidence of aquatic life around the water edges, no natural food chain, brown sludge covering lake beds from fertilizers and sewage. How about creating more habitats for small fish and food chain, breed and release fish, fish ladder at Port Dalhousie into 12 mile creek, 4 stroke motors and electric motors only and live monitoring of water quality using AI
We are living Real Time Climate Change/crisis. It is encouraging that our city is finally preparing a climate change adaptation plan. There are many factors contributing to our climate crisis. The most talked about is oil industry carbon emissions and moving towards greener energies. Second to that is the methane emissions from our animal agriculture industry. We cannot justly, fairly discuss our adaptation plan without giving sincere consideration to methane emissions and other serious factors contributing to climate crisis, such as water pollution, soil deterioration, loss of biodiversity, chemical use, deforestation and more resulting from animal ag industry.. It is critical to have a honest conversation regarding climate crisis adaptation planning that we include how important it is to reduce our animal product consumption and the massive production, breeding of animals in our current food supply chain. Without this conversation we are not addressing the core climate change issues and our adaptation plan, strategies will be a big shortfall in reaching goals to reduce emissions and sustain Healthy , Safe Communities for now and for next generations. Endorcing "The Plant- based Treaty is a very good start in public awareness and government committment to reaching our targets. I sincerely hope this is included in our upcoming climate crisis adaptation plan. Thank you for your time.
Hello!
Thank you for your question. This question has been posed to City Council and at this time they have not chosen to move forward on requests to implement a 15-minute city here.
Thank you.
carey
Hello and thank you for your comments. You are correct, climate is always changing. This work that we're doing with the community and City departments is to ensure our ability to adapt to predictable climate changes in the years ahead.
Thanks,
carey
How come in 2004 when it was a hot summer we were told to cut back on electricity use, don't use air conditioning becuase we didn't have enough power to support it from the grid, threats of rolling black outs etc. Now fast forward and all of a sudden we want every house to have a electric charger for a car, we want every house to have a electric furnace, we want everyone to drive electric cars and busses and trucks. So my question is was the public being lied to in 2004 or now. Has to be one or the other.
Thank you for your question! It’s a good one. Part of the work we’re doing in the community is with partners like Niagara Peninsula Energy (NPEI) and we’re working with a team (ICLEI) which is helping us forecast potential climate adaptations that we will have to make when things happen, like more instances of high-heat days. We hope to forecast potential threats for our community when climate changes like these occur—and put ourselves in a position to be better prepared.
In response to your question about electricity use, though I don’t have a specific answer to your question about what “we were told” in 2004’s hot summer, we do anticipate that our climate adaptation strategy will cover this and other ways to conserve, as well as suggest best practices, and highlight any areas of vulnerability (ie. if that happens to be regarding the “power grid”) and more.
Please stay tuned for updates, here. We hope to have our community working group research concluded by the end of this summer and a public report to City Council will follow.
Thanks!
carey
Hello Amanda:
Thanks for your question! Creation of the plan is designed to be inclusive throughout the community and not to stop at asset management/ infrastructure. As we know, climate impacts will have larger more far-reaching impacts than just on municipal or corporate infrastructure, and could effect all segments of our community. Your examples that you offer are some of the details that we are currently addressing with partners in the community. Thanks for your note and for your interest!
carey
Hello Judy and thanks for your note!
We have a number of partners that include both community members/ organizations and departments of the City of Niagara Falls and Region of Niagara.
They include:
City Hall Departments and committees: Municipal Works Department (Water & Wastewater/ Transportation/ Roads), Business Development Department, Corporate Services Department, Recreation, Culture and Facilities Department, Human Resources Department, Planning Department, Mayor and CAO's office, The Park in the City Committee, Mayor's Youth Advisory, Homelessness Committee, Niagara Falls Fire Department,
Niagara Regional partners: Climate Adaptation team, Public Health, Planning Department,
Community Partners: Business groups including BIA's, chamber of commerce, Niagara Falls Tourism, and individual businesses, Indigenous community, Niagara Regional Police, Niagara Peninsula Energy, Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority, Gateway of Niagara, Niagara Health
This is not an extensive list as others will be engaged throughout the process as it is several months long. This, however, constitutes most of the participation from our initial working group.
Thank you for your question.
carey
