This new non-profit will push for climate adaptation in Western Canada

A new non-profit called ClimateWest launched Tuesday, with a mission to provide information, data, and adaptation guidance around climate change in the Prairies. 

ClimateWest will provide these services to people, communities, businesses and governments in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta. 

“ClimateWest comes along at a critical moment in one of Canada’s fastest warming regions,”  said Jane Hilderman, ClimateWest’s executive director, in a news release. “Our vision is to support anyone from municipal decision-makers to watershed associations to small business who may not have the capacity or expertise on hand to interpret climate projections and use climate information to inform risk assessments and planning.”

The organization is made up of a partnership between the Prairie Adaptation Research Collaborative (PARC) at the University of Regina, the International Institute for Sustainable Development, and the Prairie Climate Centre. Environment and Climate Change Canada has committed $1.95 million over three years to the organization. The governments of Manitoba, Alberta, and Saskatchewan have also contributed monetary support, for a combined total of $2.86 million over three years in government funding. 

ClimateWest will focus primarily on climate adaptation, rather than mitigation, representatives from the founding organizations stressed in a launch event Tuesday morning. “Reducing emissions is not enough to put governments and communities in Canada on track to address climate change while building a more equitable and prosperous future,” said Hilderman. “Adaptation remains a really critical missing link. All regions in Canada have work to do on this front, but I think there’s a really unique need and unique opportunity in the Prairies right now.” 

Hilderman was referring to the Prairies’ uniquely varied climate, and susceptibility to natural disasters like droughts and floods. “The Prairie provinces have already witnessed 13 of Canada’s 20 most expensive weather related events since 1983, totalling billions of dollars of insured losses. Under a changing climate, we can anticipate even greater costs if we continue without proper planning and action,” said Dave Sauchyn, PARC director, in the news release.

A major priority issue to start, therefore, said Terry Duguid, parliamentary secretary to the minister of environment and climate change, should be water. He referenced his department’s work on a Canada Water Agency, public consultations for which were announced in December 2020. Duguid also said representatives for the Prairies to his department have been advocating for an official Prairie water strategy. “If we’re going to expand our agricultural footprint… we need to get a better handle on water,” he said. “We need to store water when it’s plentiful and we need to release it when it’s not plentiful.” 

Beyond water, IISD’s president and CEO Richard Florizone said ClimateWest should set priorities in partnership with Indigenous communities. “I’m always reminded of a phrase that [Senator] Murray Sinclair once shared with me: ‘Nothing about us without us’,” he said. “So it’s about finding topics that Indigenous communities aren’t just engaged in or consulted on… but are true priorities for them.” He also emphasized the importance of consulting municipalities and the private sector on what their climate adaptation needs are.

To understand and share climate adaptation strategies across the region, ClimateWest will focus on providing ‘climate services’, a relatively new term that in this case describes communicating relevant data in an accessible and engaging way; offering training and tools to organizations looking to implement climate adaptation solutions; and raising public awareness about issues of adaptation.

One such service, a ‘Help Desk’ — a phone and email line available to anyone in the public with questions about climate data and information — is already up and running.