In the past decade, 25 per cent of all flood events in the Lake Simcoe Watershed have been located within the Town of Innisfil’s municipal borders.
It was just one of the sobering facts brought to Innisfil council Wednesday night by Niharika Bandaru, the town’s new sustainability catalyst. She and Director of Growth Leo DeLoyde, were before council with hopes of seeing the town implement an integrated sustainability master plan (ISMP).
Local government, Bandaru said, will be on the “front lines of safeguarding” the community from climate change-related disasters.
“By planning ahead, and tactically, we will carefully consider all of these projections, where we are at today, and how to move ahead,” she said, adding, that such planning can help the community reduce its risk from climate change and recover faster.
The ISMP is designed to act as a guide for town staff on all short- medium- and long-term actions.
“You can call it the town’s sustainability bible, if you wish,” Bandaru said.
For the greatest chance at success, there is a need to take both past and ongoing individual efforts at mitigating the impacts of climate change and combine them into a greater plan. The three pillars of Sustainable Innisfil – mitigation, adaptation and operational sustainability – come together to create an ISMP.
The ISMP would identify key objectives and subsequent actions required to enact significant climate-related changes at both the corporate and community levels within the town. Throughout its five-step development plan, consultations with various stakeholders, including residents and conservation authorities, will continue.
The presentation garnered wide support from councillors, and the resolution to implement the plan in a phased approach was passed. However, Coun. Ken Eisses had concerns with the town’s agricultural industry being singled out.
“I’m just a little concerned when I read one of the top phrases about changing agricultural production,” he said. “Is there a little bit of an overreach in some of this? I have no problem controlling the departments that we have and the plans that we have with building our cities. But this topic is being dealt with federally and provincially, and to go into it with preconceived ideas, I’m just a little concerned.”
Eisses acknowledged the impact of agriculture on climate change but didn’t feel it should be included in the town’s sustainability priorities, as farmers are working diligently to improve food sustainability.
DeLoyde defended the inclusion.
“Sustainability is everybody’s business,” he said. “The town - and its operations - has to mind its own business. The community has a big role in playing in achieving sustainability and I would suggest the development industry, the agriculture industry and other industries have a role to play.
“There was no intention of being restrictive,” DeLoyde added, “But if we go it alone and the others don’t do anything, we’re not going to achieve everything we could achieve.”
As part of the resolution, the town also joined Partners for Climate Protection, a network of more than 400 municipalities across Canada. Coun. Alex Waters was appointed as the council representative liaison to oversee the implementation of the Partners for Climate Protection framework.