Minister's Speech

Remarks for:

The Honourable John Gerretsen
Minister of the Environment

The Institute of Public Administration of Canada
Climate Change and Canadian Public Policy: Adaptation and Action

Le Meridien King Edward Hotel, Toronto
October 29, 2008 at 8:20 a.m.

(Check against delivery)

Thank you Gabriel, [Sékaly] for that kind introduction 

Good morning, everyone.

I’m glad to be here and to help open the second day of this conference.

I want to thank Gabriel for inviting me to participate.

I congratulate IPAC for inviting so many public policy leaders and experts to gather together, share knowledge, and discuss the best ways to adapt and move forward.

Certainly in Ontario, the progress we’ve made and will continue to make─ benefits directly from the ideas and input of our key administrators, and I know other jurisdictions are equally fortunate.

We look forward to the results of your deliberations and discussions.

Premier Dalton McGuinty has made it our chief environmental priority.

There is no denying its effects.  Climate change will impact all of us — no matter where we live.

Building on our ambitious environmental agenda … we have developed a comprehensive action plan on climate change called Go Green:

This plan has five elements:

• It sets out tough targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to six per cent below 1990 levels by 2014, and 15 per cent below by 2020.
• It calls for a $17.5 billion investment in public transit.
• It includes a $1.15 billion fund to help Ontario businesses develop our Next Generation of Jobs.
• It promotes conservation, and sets out long-term targets that will double the amount of electricity we get from clean, green renewable sources by 2025.
• And it includes measures to be sure that Ontario’s towns and cities will grow green.  

We are also collaborating with like-minded governments for a strengthened overall response to climate change.

For instance, Ontario is part of the Western Climate Initiative — which is developing a regional cap and trade system to reduce greenhouse gases, and involves several US states and four Canadian provinces.

We’re also working with Quebec on a cap-and-trade system between our two provinces that is compatible with other developing systems such as WCI.

We all recognize the importance of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. 

At the same time, that’s only the first part of what needs to be done to secure our future health and prosperity.

Our Go Green plan also takes into account the need to adapt to the initial impact of climate change. 

It’s a plan designed to bring results.

The first Go Green Annual report charting our progress will be released very soon.

At the same time, we know that we need to adapt to some of the effects of climate change.

Our work to reduce emissions and fight climate change goes hand in hand with our work to adapt to its consequences. 

We’ve gone from a time when adaptation was seldom mentioned to now organizing an expert panel of the best minds in the country mainstreaming adaptation in all parts of government.

Earlier this year, Premier McGuinty took steps to take the adaptation movement nationwide.

While attending a Premier’s meeting in Vancouver, he called for a national summit on climate change adaptation.

Ontario has since organized and hosted this two-day event.

The summit brought together more than 100 scientists and academics for the express purpose of developing provincial and national strategies for adapting to climate change.

It was a great success.

One of the strongest themes to emerge from the summit was the need to “mainstream” adaptation into the government decision-making process.

In addition to hosing this national summit, the province also appointed an Expert Panel on Climate Change Adaptation.

For almost a year now, panel co-chairs Dr. David Pearson and Dr. Ian Burton, together with their colleagues have been meeting, considering issues and strategies to help our province prepare and plan for the impact of climate change in our communities and ecosystem.

The importance of this work cannot be overstated.

They’ve been looking across all ministries — from environment to health, from energy to infrastructure, from natural resources to municipal affairs — because all are affected.   

And we look forward to receiving their advice and recommendations this winter.

In the meantime, on an ongoing basis, they are giving us advice on the path forward in this new and critical area of government business.

Already, the panel has considered how our source water protection program will need to consider climate change from a risk management perspective.

To that end, my ministry is now building climate change considerations into agreements and legislation to protect Ontario’s water.

We know severe weather — such as frequent freeze-thaws or increased flooding or stronger winds — can impact public infrastructure and our ability to provide critical infrastructure services to Ontarians.

The panel has provided advice to our colleagues at the Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure on how the capital planning process must consider climate change factors.

We want to be sure if we build a new bridge, for instance — that it’ll be a bridge that can withstand weather fluctuations and won’t need rebuilding in a few years time.

Policies need to be in place to help us think through every possibility.   

Our government is not only looking at how we can introduce adaptation to Ontario’s practices — we’re leading the issue on a broader scale.

We’ve also funded the Ontario Centre for Climate Impacts and Adaptation Resources in Sudbury.

This Centre is based at Laurentian University, and is a hub for information and education.

Under the leadership of Dr. Pearson, the Centre works with partners including municipalities and public health units across the province to encourage adaptation.

And a big part of its mandate is to develop tools for helping municipalities include adaptation in their strategies and processes as they move forward.

I do want to recognize that many municipalities are already responding to the realities of climate change.

We also appreciate the value of collaboration in policy development ─ and I was pleased to hear that IPAC will be writing a report and providing advice to governments based on the outcomes of this conference.

We will benefit from your insight.

Our government is taking crucial steps to both fight climate change and adapt to its reality.

Yet as we look ahead, I’m still reminded of that old saying: The only certainty is uncertainty.

No one can predict what events will occur with 100 per cent accuracy, or the impacts that will result as a consequence of global warming.

But we can become as informed as possible.  

We need to use the best science to understand and prepare for the unexpected.

To that end, we are investing $3.6 million to monitor climate change — to build modelling capacity and to conduct research so we can make informed decisions.

And while there are certainly challenges to climate change — there are also opportunities.

That’s a very important point to remember.

Of course, the economy is very much top of mind for everyone these days.

No country in the world is immune from what’s going on in the global markets.

We know times are tough for many people and we are not only taking action to bolster Ontario’s economy … we believe we can help build for the future by investing in innovation and supporting green technology.

Time was, people used to think in terms of the environment versus the economy. 

There’s no longer any choice to be made.

Today, it’s all about the environment and the economy.

Our government is fully committed to a healthy environment.  We also recognize that climate change is perhaps the defining environmental issue of our time.

The expected impacts of climate change threaten our communities, environment, economy, health and infrastructure. 

We're already seeing more frequent, more severe weather — not just in hurricane prone areas in the south but here too.

Just a few years ago, on August 19, 2005 — a few hours of rain through southern Ontario and the GTA dumped more than 150 millimetres of rain.

It overwhelmed our infrastructure, causing extensive damage to homes and businesses.

It washed out an overpass on Finch Avenue here in Toronto.

When the final tally was done, that single rain storm over a few hours that day was the most expensive natural disaster in Ontario's history with over $500 million in losses — more expensive than Hurricane Hazel and the second most-expensive in Canada after the Ice Storm of 1998.

Clearly, these natural events don't have to become natural disasters.

It simply underscores the need to adapt and strengthen our infrastructure, homes and businesses to ensure we are better able to withstand these new stresses.

With climate change we can expect the frequency of events like this to increase.

Even under the most optimistic scenarios, we can still expect an increase of 2.8 celsius degrees in average temperatures over the course of this century.

When you consider we are anticipating another 3.8 million people coming here and settling in Ontario in the next 25 years — we need to ensure that growth is planned, and the critical infrastructure to support it is strengthened.

It is our responsibility to address climate change, for the sake of future generations and the health of this planet.  

It is also our responsibility to adapt to its reality. 

The magnitude of this issue cannot be overstated.

We will need to change how we live and we will need to change government and government policy to respond effectively to the challenge of climate change.

We will continue to work with our public administrators to put the right policies in place — to protect our environment, our province and our people.

We will continue to work with families, businesses, communities and governments to create a healthy, strong and prosperous future for us all.

I look forward to hearing the outcome of this conference.

Thank you all for attending.

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