Engineers Canada Supports Federal Investment in Climate Resilience

Ensuring climate change vulnerability assessments are included will be key to success of this initiative

OTTAWA, March 3, 2016 – Engineers Canada welcomes the federal government’s recent announcement to support municipalities in making smart and strategic investments to improve the climate resilience of public and private infrastructure across Canada.

The government committed to investing $75 million to help municipal governments reduce emissions and build climate resiliency. An additional investment of $50 million will be used to improve climate resilience in building and infrastructure codes across Canada.

“Enhancing the capacity of municipalities to address climate change and coupling this with strengthened building and infrastructure codes is key to safeguarding the environment, the economy and Canadians,” said Kim Allen, FEC, P.Eng., Chief Executive Officer of Engineers Canada. “Engineers Canada and the profession will work with all level of government to help infrastructure owners build capacity and ensure Canada is safer and more resilient to extreme weather and our changing climate.”

Canada’s engineering profession has adopted national practice guidelines for engineers to improve the resilience of new and existing infrastructure by stipulating that a climate change vulnerability assessment is an integral part of the design process.

Engineers Canada, with support from Natural Resources Canada, has developed and deployed the Public Infrastructure Engineering Vulnerability Committee Protocol (PIEVC) to assess infrastructure climate vulnerability. Since its creation in 2005, it has been applied in more than 45 infrastructure projects across Canada and several internationally. The PIEVC Protocol is a robust, structured and documented process for engineers, planners and decision-makers to identify and recommend measures to address the vulnerabilities and risks from climate change on infrastructure. The Protocol assessment helps infrastructure owners and managers justify design, operations and maintenance recommendations to assure their project’s life cycle through improved resilience to extreme weather events and our changing climate.

“Improving climate resilience within building and infrastructures codes across Canada will enhance their ability to withstand extreme weather events and the effects of a changing climate and increase Canada’s competitiveness in a global economy,” said Allen. “Integrating climate change vulnerability assessments, such as the PIEVC Protocol, into building and infrastructure codes will ensure reliability and durability that improves the quality of life, safety and service that Canadians enjoy and on which businesses rely.”

The Protocol is available for use at no financial charge through a license agreement with Engineers Canada. Information on the vulnerability assessments completed to date and on the Protocol can be found at www.pievc.ca.

Engineers Canada is the national organization of provincial and territorial associations that regulate the practice of engineering in Canada and license the country's more than 280,000 members of the engineering profession. Together, we work to safeguard a better future for the environment, the economy and Canadians.

For more information, contact:

Brent Gibson
Practice Lead, Communications
Engineers Canada
613.232.2474 x234
brent.gibson@engineerscanada.ca