Council for Canadian Urbanism - Resilience Working Group
In August 2021, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released their “code red” climate report. Among their findings, the IPCC reports that human-induced climate change is ‘unequivocal’ and is already affecting many weather and climate extremes in every region across the globe. Moreover, without strong, rapid, and sustained reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, these extremes are predicted, with high scientific confidence, to result in impacts that may be long-lasting or irreversible, including the loss of some ecosystems entirely. It’s clear we need to move from climate emergency to climate action. But where does action start?
Political action always starts locally. Towns and cities are on the frontlines of climate change, where decisions are made about new communities, urban renewal, housing approvals, infrastructure, and roads and transit – all major sources of greenhouse gas emissions. With the right tools, plans, and policies in place, towns and cities can play a pivotal role in reducing emissions and delivering more sustainable, resilient, and livable communities.
Join the CanU Resiliency Working Group, comprised of public, private, and academic participants, to discuss the challenges municipalities encounter when embarking on climate change initiatives. We will share our collective thoughts on the following:
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How have plans started in other Municipalities?
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How did they get approved?
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How effective are they?
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What other initiatives are towns and cities working on?
Following a series of short and engaging presentations, we will facilitate a working session to provide practical working experience, help to answer your questions and discuss your issues.
Featuring
Corey Bialek is a Senior Analyst, Innovation and Sustainability, at Waterfront Toronto. He approaches projects through a multidisciplinary lens owing to his educational experience in human geography, environmental studies, and urban planning. His approach to projects is informed by a holistic understanding of sustainability, encompassing the social, cultural, and environmental dimensions of development.
Corey Bialek
Daniel H. Leeming
BA, Dip CP, MES, FCIP, RPP
Daniel H. Leeming is a founding partner of The Planning Partnership and has worked on the design and development of new towns and various sizes of planned communities for private and public agencies throughout Ontario and the United States over his 35 years of experience. His areas of expertise include community planning, from regional to neighbourhood scale with the application of urban design, sustainable and public health initiatives through facilitation to create meaningful and complete communities while satisfying the needs of the marketplace. Many of his projects have received awards not only from Provincial and National Planning Associations, but from private sector building and development organizations.
Dan also works with various universities and is an adjunct professor at the University of Guelph, has taught Urban Design at the University of Toronto and was the 2014-2015 University of Waterloo ‘Planner in Residence’. He has also authored several articles for the Ontario Planning Journal on topics such as changing energy needs, public health and urban design, our aging society, climate change, and sustainable innovation in community designs. Dan is a Fellow of the Canadian Institute of Planners, and a Board Member with the Council on Canadian Urbansim (CanU). Dan formerly served as: Vice Chair of the Toronto Design Review Board; as a member of the Mississauga Urban Design Advisory Panel; on the Board of Active Healthy Kids Canada and co-chaired the Canadian LEED-ND review committee. Dan is also the recipient of the ‘2016 Minister’s Award for Environmental Excellence’ presented by the Ontario Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change for his research and design of new communities in the areas of climate change mitigation.
Jade Schofield
Jade Schofield is the Project Manager for Sustainability and Climate Change for the Town of Whitby. She holds 9 years’ experience in the municipal realm, and 4 years in the not for profit sector.
Her work integrates a variety of focus areas such as, conducting climate risk assessments, generating greenhouse gas inventories, designing and implementing long term strategic plans, policies and programs for both climate adaptation and mitigation, enhancing and improving terrestrial ecosystems, planning for advanced energy conservation and efficiency, and creating and delivering education resources to enable an increased public understanding of environmental systems.
She holds a Bachelor of Science in Environment Science from the University of Plymouth, UK, and Trent University, ON, as well as, a Masters in Environmental Applied Science from Ryerson University, ON.
Jade thrives on collaboration, and the ability to apply a multi- disciplinary approach to advancing sustainability and climate change actions. However, her personal interests are very attached to nature and the outdoors. She is true a tree geek, and often crosses her personal interests of trees with her professional. She needs little invitation to speak out about the importance of trees. Often promoting their benefits to the environment, the economy and our health, even when not always invited!
Jenny McMinn
As Managing Director of Urban Equation and Partner of Innovation and Impact at Windmill Development Group, Jenny McMinn provides both real estate development and sustainability advisory across North America. Jenny draws on her experience with Windmill Development Group, one of Canada’s most well-known and accomplished green building developers, to assist her development clients in reaching their sustainability goals.
Over the last 15 years, Jenny has consulted with both government agencies and private developers to deliver award-winning, high-performance green building and new community projects, including those targeting One Planet Living, Zero Carbon Standard, The WELL standard and LEED Platinum. Her most recent clients include Sidewalk Labs, Northcrest Developments, Canada Lands, Quadreal as well as all levels of Canadian government. Jenny is actively advising on over 20M square feet of carbon neutral community development.
Jenny is Vice-Chair of the Canadian Green Building Council’s Board of Directors. She is an active mentor for both the Schulich School of Business and the Urban Land Institute and is past member of the City of Toronto’s Design Review Panel. Jenny has a Bachelor of Architecture and a Bachelor of Environmental Studies, both from the University of Waterloo.
With over a decade of environmental consulting experience in the fields of climate change mitigation and adaptation, risk management and brownfield assessment and remediation, as the Manager of Climate Change Planning, Mike Fabro is helping create and drive the City of London’s response to their declaration of a climate emergency.
Mike Fabro
P.Eng., M.E.B.
Stacey McCulloch
BES, MLA, MCIP, RPP
Associate, Urban Designer + Policy Planner
Stacey McCulloch is an Associate at The Planning Partnership with 20 years of planning and urban design experience. Her approach to creating livable communities is based on an understanding of the need for public health and climate change adaptation in the built environment. This approach and her experience working on a variety of projects from policy planning to urban design provide the necessary background to support and implement planning and urban design strategies that promote sustainable communities and healthy human development.
Stacey’s professional experience and portfolio of projects includes policy planning, land use planning, landscape design, community planning, and guideline development. This range of experience has led her to specialize in community design and policy development with a focus on sustainability. Stacey’s portfolio includes numerous projects, both public and private, that are incorporating sustainable initiatives.
Trevor Imhoff
Trevor Imhoff is currently the Senior Project Manager and leads the Air Quality and Climate Change Team for the City of Hamilton and Chairs the Corporate Climate Change Task Force in response to Hamilton Council’s Climate Emergency Declaration.
Trevor has been a professional in the environmental field for over 8 years specializing in program development, initiation, implementation and monitoring for multi-stakeholder projects, plans and policies. He sits on and leads varying committees including federal, provincial and municipal government agencies, businesses, academia, non-profits and grass-root organizations. He has experience solving, in a collaborative and inclusive manner, complex environmental issues in the fields of air quality, climate change mitigation and adaptation, natural heritage, hydrogeology, planning, and civil engineering. Trevor is a growing leader both locally in Hamilton and across Canada. In 2018 he was nominated to be apart of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) Top 10 Municipal Leaders Cohort across Canada and in 2019 was a Young Alumni Inspiration Award nominee at the University of Waterloo. Trevor is also a public health representative on the Canadian Commission on Building and Fire Codes (CCBFC) Standing Committee on Energy Efficiency (SC-EE). Trevor's technical knowledge combined with his experience in environmental governance provides him the expertise to properly and efficiently enact change for the preservation and enhancement of both public and environmental health.
Will Nixon is a new urban planner who just graduated from York University’s Master of Environmental Studies (Planning) program. His planning related interests include climate adaptation policy, community focused resilience, and active transportation.