HALDIMAND—Haldimand County is hoping a grant application to the Federation of Canadian Municipalities’ Local Leadership for Climate Adaption (LLCA) will result in funding opportunities to address environmental concerns.
Haldimand set aside $90,000 in its proposed 2025 capital budget for a climate change adaptation plan. According to a staff report, “If successful in obtaining the grant, it will offset the identified 2025 capital costs. The completion of the plan will make the County eligible to apply for future grant funding for programs that include work related to climate impacts such as shoreline protection, flood mitigation, etc.”
If funding is granted, Haldimand would hire an external consulting firm to develop the plan and a preliminary climate risk assessment: “This process helps to evaluate how climate change impacts could affect the Haldimand County community and help Council, staff, and external stakeholders understand the climate-related threats to municipal services and infrastructure,” read the report. “It provides a basis for the climate adaptation plan.”
A finished plan would typically involve an assessment of vulnerabilities; goals and objectives; action strategies; implementation timeline; monitoring and evaluation criteria.The report called the plan “crucial for ensuring communities can withstand and recover from the adverse effects of climate change, such as extreme weather events and other climate events specific to our region.”
Capital Works Manager Tyson Haedrich offered some thoughts on the timeliness of establishing the plan: “The federal government is starting to roll out a number of grant funding programs. We’ve had one that’s already gone through. One of the requirements is that you do have a climate change adaptation plan,” he shared. “Once we have it in place, we can apply for those grant funding programs for things like shoreline erosion, flooding mitigation, anything that falls under that climate change envelope.”
He said that at Council’s next scheduled meeting, they will review an energy conservation demand management plan, “which is sort of the mitigation half of climate change and this is the adaptation plan.”
Councillor Rob Shirton asked if local conservation authorities could apply separately for the grant or if it is strictly through municipalities. Haedrich replied, “I’m fairly certain that other agencies can apply for it as well. I believe the NPCA has applied for this and completed a climate change adaptation plan.”
Council approved the grant funding request unanimously.
