Grants which was awarded to ICLEI Canada to support their Adaptation Changemakers Project.

Discussion:

The draft Climate Change Adaptation Plan was tabled for public comment on November 20, 2019 with the comment period closing on January 20, 2020 and was posted on the

City of Windsor’s website on both the Environment Page and the Climate Change

Adaptation Page. To encourage public review, it was linked on Social Media (Facebook & Twitter). Hard copies were available and posters were on display at seven Community Centres (Forest Glade Community & Customer Care Centre, WFCU Centre, Constable John Atkinson Memorial Community Centre, Gino & Liz Marcus Community & Customer Care Complex, Capri Pizzeria Recreation Complex, Adie Knox Herman Recreation Complex and Optimist Community Centre) and Windsor Public libraries encouraging the public to read the draft plan and to submit their comments.

In addition, public engagement sessions were held at Windsor International Aquatic and Training Centre, the WFCU Centre, the Capri Pizzeria Recreation Complex and the Gino & Liz Marcus Community & Customer Care Complex. Two staff were available at each public session to respond to any questions and take notes of any comments.

Results of Public Engagement Sessions and Survey

At each public engagement session, members of the community were provided with the opportunity to review and comment on the entirety of the draft Plan. Poster boards were displayed with an introduction to the plan, the identified impacts, as well as an outline of the plan’s objectives and proposed actions. In addition, the attendees were asked to identified which objectives and actions they felt should be prioritized. Appendix A of this report details the objective and action priorities of those in attendance at the multiple events. In summary, the public indicated Objective 1: Integrate Climate Change Thinking and Response as their greatest priority, followed by Objective 5: Protect Biodiversity and Enhance Ecosystem Functions and Objective 7: Build Community Resilience.

City staff involved in the plan development were also surveyed to determine overall priorities. The results of the staff survey yielded different results, with 50% of respondents indicating Objective 2: Protect Public Health and Safety ranking as the highest priority, followed by Objective 4: Strengthen Infrastructure Resilience and finally, Objective 1: Integrate Climate Change Thinking and Response.

Written Comments

The public was also encouraged to submit written comments and suggestions on the Plan. The comments were submitted primarily via e-mail to the Environmental Master Plan inbox. Many of the comments provided referred to mitigation actions which are already listed in the Community Energy Plan (2017). In total, fifteen written comments were received. These comments can be summarized as follows: