2025 Toronto, Ontario Natural Resources Canada
Across the country, the impacts of climate change are becoming more severe and more frequent with extreme events like floods and wildfires and more gradual changes like thawing permafrost and rising sea levels, affecting the safety and quality of life of our communities. Acting now will help protect our communities from the worst economic and environmental impacts of climate change by improving long-term resilience and reducing costs associated with the increasing frequency of extreme weather events.
Today, the Honourable Jonathan Wilkinson and Parliamentary Secretary Julie Dabrusin announced $4.1 million in funding for two projects based around Ontario's Great Lakes under Natural Resources Canada's Climate-Resilient Coastal Communities (CRCC) Program and highlighted the successful completion of Phase 1 of the Flood Hazard Identification and Mapping Program (FHIMP) in 2024.
Through the CRCC Program, the two projects respectively led by Conservation Ontario and Zuzek Inc. will aim to support coastal communities around the Great Lakes by completing climate change risk assessments and developing integrated adaptation plans and actions in collaboration with regional stakeholders and Indigenous communities.
Under the first phase of the FHIMP, NRCan focused on broadening flood mapping in high-risk areas across Canada in collaboration with provinces and territories and cost-shared $52 million in funding for 200 flood mapping projects covering over 800 communities. The flood maps developed through Phase 1 of the FHIMP provide provinces, territories and communities with important tools and information to make informed decisions on flood risk management.
Supporting the creation of flood maps and enhancing the accessibility of flood information to support flood risk management, as well as reducing climate change risks and building more resilient communities in Canada, all work to support the country's first National Adaptation Strategy (NAS).
The Government of Canada remains committed to collaborating with provincial and territorial partners to advance flood mapping efforts and continue investing in climate change adaptation to proactively support community-led resilience and adaptation efforts. It is essential, now more than ever, that we come together to help communities stay strong in the face of current and future change.
