The Climate Action Partnership (CAP) held a municipal roundtable focused on Data Center Growth and Municipal Management and monitoring and reporting strategies by City of Barrie.
Climate Action
Ontario Residents on Climate Action: What Municipal Staff Need To Know
How do Ontario residents understand building decarbonization and climate adaptation—and what does that mean for local governments? In this webinar, the EcoAnalytics’ Clean Cities Research (CCR) Project team shared Ontario-specific findings from their Phase 3 survey, with a practical focus on implications for municipalities. The session was tailored for municipal staff working on climate action, buildings, and adaptation, and explored how public attitudes can support effective policy development and communications.
CAC Roundtable: May 2026
The Climate Action Partnership (CAP) held a municipal roundtable focused on sharing progress, discussing reporting challenges, and exploring prioritization strategies for climate action plans.
CAC Roundtable: April 2026
In this Roundtable meeting we had a presentation from the University of Toronto regarding graduate student placement opportunities and pro bono consulting for municipal environmental projects. The Atmospheric Fund (TAF) then introduced its new Home Solar Accelerator Program, which provides a free concierge service and educational resources to help homeowners in the Greater Toronto Hamilton Area install solar and storage systems. A significant portion of the meeting addressed Bill 98 and the provincial government’s impact on green development standards, prompting a discussion on a “pivot” toward voluntary tracking and transparency. CAC municipal member staff also explored the use of Community Improvement Plans (CIPs) to incentivize sustainable construction and affordable housing
From Policy to Practice: Building Successful Municipal Rain Gardens
The webinar will showcase how the City of Richmond Hill plans, designs, and delivers rain garden projects to manage stormwater and build climate resilience. The presenters will share insights on the internal coordination and collaboration needed to successfully implement these projects.
They will also share strategies for engaging and educating the community on rain gardens.
Additional Resources
- City of Richmond Hill Environment Strategy
- City of Richmond Hill Climate Change Framework
- City of Richmond Hill Community Energy and Emissions Plan: Richmond Hill’s Path to a Low-Carbon Future
- City of Richmond Hill Asset Management Plan
- Climate Ready Homes Program
- Build Your Own Rain Garden: A Resident Guide
Climate Budget Series: City of Edmonton
The Climate Budget webinar series features municipalities that are advancing or have adopted climate budgets, focusing on how these budgets are tracked, managed, and drive decision-making.
In this session, the City of Edmonton share their approach to a municipal climate budget, including critical steps from the planning and development phase.
Additional Resources
Integrating Natural Assets Into Municipal Asset Management
Incorporating a Natural Asset Inventory into municipal asset management helps municipalities recognize and protect the essential services that natural systems provide, while reducing long-term costs and strengthening overall service reliability.
In this webinar, Patrick Wong, Senior Natural Heritage Planner at City of Markham shared the findings and recommendations of Markham’s Natural Assets Inventory and Evaluation Study. The session will highlight key components of the natural asset inventory—including asset valuation, condition, and levels of service—and provide an overview of how these assets contribute to municipal climate resilience and municipal service delivery.
Additional Resources
- City of Markham 2025 Asset Management Plan
- City of Markham Natural Heritage Inventory and Assessment Study
- City of Markham Staff Report – Phase 1 Report: Natural Heritage Inventory and Assessment Study
- Reg. 588/17: ASSET MANAGEMENT PLANNING FOR MUNICIPAL INFRASTRUCTURE
- City of Markham Natural Asset Inventory
CAC Roundtable: February 2026
Discussion involved CAC roundtable updates, focused on 2026 projects and priorities.
Climate Budget Series: City of Vancouver
The Climate Budget series showcases municipal approaches to climate budgeting, answering key questions related to staff engagement during development, generating buy-in, and overall budget effectiveness.
In this first session, the City of Vancouver shared their approach, including key steps throughout development and implementation.
Climate Communications: Peel Region’s Internal Climate Change Training Program
Many Ontario municipalities have declared climate emergencies, set net-zero targets, and are implementing their Climate Action Plans. But beyond the efforts of climate and energy staff, how can organizations build climate literacy and momentum across all departments? In this webinar, Mark Pajot, Advisor in the Office of Climate Change and Energy Management (OCCEM) at Peel Region, shared how OCCEM developed and is rolling out its climate training program for staff, including key challenges and lessons learned.
CAC Workshop: Integrated Energy Plan
In June 2025, Ontario released the province’s Integrated Energy Plan (IEP), which is intended to outline the actions needed to prepare for the anticipated growth of Ontario’s electricity system and bring together planning for electricity, natural gas, hydrogen, and other fuels into a single coordinated plan.
Last year, a draft version of the IEP was published for public comment. The CAC provided feedback during this process, and upon reviewing the final version of the plan, we’ve identified areas of both alignment and misalignment between the CAC’s recommendations and the actions outlined in the final IEP. This workshop provided an overview of these points of alignment and misalignment and included a discussion about next steps.
- Discussion Summary
- Ontario’s Integrated Energy Plan: Alignment and Misalignment with Municipal Climate Priorities Presentation Slide Deck
Additional Resources
- Information on Toronto and Burlington’s collaboration with their LDC’s can be found in this webinar Utility and Municipal Engagements on Distribution System for Decarbonization Webinar
Natural Assets Webinar Series: Offsets, Land Protections and Land Acquisitions
The carbon offset market represents an opportunity for municipalities and conservation authorities, either through purchasing offsets as a tool to achieve GHG reduction targets, selling offsets as a tool to diversify revenue streams, or both. At least as many challenges exist with the market though, including the cost of participation and concerns about transparency and accountability. This webinar introduced carbon offsets from organizations who have started exploring this option, through both formal market approaches and less formal intra-organizational approaches.
Additional Resources
- Natural Assets Series: Carbon Sequestration Calculation Tools and Approaches Webinar Recording
- Natural Assets Series: Carbon Sequestration Calculation Tools and Approaches Webinar Summary
- Natural Asset Carbon Assessment Guide and Toolbox
- EOMF Forest Certification Program
- EOMF Carbon Offset Program
For a copy of the slide deck, please contact cap@climateactionpartnership.ca
Low-Carbon Hydrogen in Mississauga: Infrastructure and Market Potential
Mississauga is investigating the development of a hydrogen hub. The hub is designed to engage project partners and local businesses to build awareness and education about hydrogen. The City of Mississauga engaged Deloitte to assess the feasibility of establishing a hydrogen hub, with funding from Natural Resources Canada. The assessment aimed to: (1) understand the hydrogen opportunity in Mississauga and the surrounding region, focusing on infrastructure and market potential, (2) position Mississauga competitively to attract investment and support for hydrogen initiatives, and (3) develop actionable steps to operationalize the hydrogen hub and address key challenges. In this webinar, City of Mississauga staff shared the results of the analysis.
Additional Resources
- City of Mississauga: Hydrogen Foundational Summary Report
- City of Mississauga: Engaging a hydrogen ecosystem project page
- City of Mississauga: Hydrogen Fuel Cell Electric Bus Pilot Project
- Annual Canadian Hydrogen Conference
For a copy of the slide deck, please contact us at cap@cleanairpartnership.org
Southern Ontario Flood Equity Working Group Workshop – Taking Stock: Current Flood Data and Information Needs in Southern Ontario
Southern Ontario faces growing flood risks that require evidence-based approaches to develop equitable flood information systems that adequately consider vulnerable and at-risk populations. This workshop sought to take stock of current flood data and information capabilities across our region, identifying gaps, pressing requirements, and key challenges. We will draw on leading international frameworks to examine how these might inform practitioners in Southern Ontario, as we develop this framework for an equitable flood data information system. Together, we explored what equitable flood information systems could look like and how to collaboratively create them, recognizing that current evidence-based approaches may inadvertently overlook at-risk populations. Attendees engaged in structured breakout discussions to develop a collaborative vision for more equitable flood data and information systems that serve both long-term adaptation planning and broader community resilience goals.
Growing Together: A Tree Equity Q&A Session
City of Toronto and City of Ottawa have each adopted a tree equity approach to address the unequal distribution of urban canopy in their cities. Both cities are working to identify and prioritize areas of tree inequity, focusing tree planting efforts where they are needed most. In this session, staff from City of Toronto and City of Ottawa answered your questions regarding their approaches and the challenges so far.
Additional Resources
- Promoting Equity in Urban Forestry: City of Ottawa’s Tree Equity Approach Webinar
- Promoting Equity in Urban Forestry: City of Ottawa’s Tree Equity Analysis Webinar Summary
- The American Forest Tree Equity Score Tool
- City of Ottawa’s Tree Equity Analysis staff report
- City of Ottawa’s Environment and Climate Change Committee Agenda (June 18, 2024)
- Private Land Tree Planting Program Research Briefing
- Tree Equity Score Analyzer, Toronto, ON
- Factsheet: Advancing tree equity and growing community canopies
- City of Toronto’s Actions to Reaffirm Toronto’s Tree Canopy Target staff report
Indoor Heat Bylaw Series: Understanding the Heat Risk Landscape in Canadian Communities
This workshop provided an overview of the impact of frequent heat events on health and equity in our communities. We explored the roles played by local governments in addressing heat events, introduced CAP’s Heat Adaptation Project, and provided an overview of North America’s maximum temperature bylaws. Participants heard from the Canadian Environmental Law Association on municipal authority to implement a maximum temperature bylaw, the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, and City of Toronto.
Additional Resources
- Clean Air Partnership Accelerating Municipal Climate Change Adaptation to Extreme Heat Project Page
- Backgrounder on Maximum Temperature Bylaw
- Jurisdictional Scan of Maximum Heat Related Bylaws and Policies
- Spatial distribution of heat vulnerability in Toronto, Canada
- Eyquem, J., & Feltmate, B. (2022). Irreversible extreme heat: Protecting Canadians and communities from a lethal future. Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation, University of Waterloo.
- Lugten, E., & Hariharan, N. (2022). Strengthening health systems for climate adaptation and health security: Key considerations for policy and programming. Health Security, 20(5), 435-439.
- Cities across Canada consider maximum temperature policy for rental units.
If you would like a copy of the slide deck, please contact us at cap@cleanairpartnership.org
Town of Pelham’s Natural Asset Management Plan
The Town of Pelham has completed a Municipal Natural Asset Management Plan (MNAMP) to enhance its understanding, evaluation, and management of natural assets. This project, supported by a grant from the Greenbelt Foundation and in partnership with the Natural Asset Initiative, identified and inventoried over 4,000 natural assets. The project assessed the current condition of these assets, the services they provide, and estimated their value at approximately $600,000,000, primarily in stormwater management services.
In this webinar, Michelle Molnar, Technical Director with Natural Assets Initiative, provided an overview of natural asset management. Shannon Larocque, Manager of Planning, and Samantha Witkowski, Environmental Coordinator from the Town of Pelham, discussed the development process of the MNAMP and presented key recommendations for managing the Town’s natural assets moving forward.
Additional Resources
- Town of Pelham Natural Asset Inventory Dashboard
- The Pelham Greenbelt Natural Asset Management Project Technical Report
- Pelham-Greenbelt Natural Asset Management Project Summary
If you would like a copy of the slide deck, please contact us at cap@cleanairpartnership.org
City of Hamilton Public Works Department Climate Lens
In this webinar, Andrea McDowell from City of Hamilton presented on the City’s Public Works department climate lens, sharing insights into the development and implementation of the lens, and how it helps to ensure climate change considerations are integrated into decision-making.
Additional Resources
If you would like a copy of the slide deck, or would like to access a recording of this webinar, please contact us at cap@cleanairpartnership.org
Applying An Equity and Climate Lens in Dufferin County
Getting Nature into Financial Reporting: Natural Asset Disclosures for Local Governments
Natural assets -such as wetlands, rivers, and forests- are increasingly recognized as infrastructure that provides financially valuable ecosystem services to Canadian communities. Integrating these assets into financial reporting can help local governments demonstrate effective management of these valuable services. The new Intact Centre guide Getting Nature into Financial Reporting, developed for Standards Council of Canada, with KPMG LPP, the Natural Assets Initiative and over 120 contributors, outlines metrics that can be reported as part of a stepwise approach to more complete natural asset reporting, no matter where your community is starting from. In this webinar, Joanna Eyquem, Managing Director of Climate-Resilient Infrastructure, Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation, discussed the step-by-step guide to disclosures and City of Calgary presented on their efforts to integrate natural asset-related disclosures into financial reporting.
Additional Resources
- Getting Nature into Financial Reporting: Natural Assets Disclosures for Local Governments (Report)
- Getting Nature on the Balance Sheet: Recognizing the Financial Value Provided by Natural Assets in a Changing Climate (Report)
- City of Calgary – Climate and Environment Progress Tracking
- Statistics Canada, Census of the Environment
- IFRS S1 General Requirements for Disclosure of Sustainability-related Financial Information
- IFRS S2 Climate-related Disclosures
- Bill C-59
- System of Environmental Economic Accounting
If you would like a copy of the slide deck, please contact us at cap@cleanairpartnership.org