Canada Invests in Climate Change Adaptation to Keep Communities Safe Around Ontario’s Great Lakes

On January 20, 2024, 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.

These projects 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.

The funding announced today comes from a total investment of $39.5 million, announced on November 14, 2024, through the Climate Change Adaptation Program (CCAP) and the CRCC Program to reduce climate change risks and build more resilient communities across the country in support of the National Adaptation Strategy (NAS). 

NRCan is funding the following two projects under the CRCC Program:

Project Name: Adaptation to Coastal Hazards across the Great Lakes Region

Recipient: Conservation Ontario

Reach: Lake Superior, Lake Huron, Lake Ontario, Ontario

Location: Northern Lake Superiors shoreline within the Lakehead Region Conservation Authority jurisdiction; Southern Lake Huron shoreline within Maitland Conservation Authority jurisdiction; Western Lake Ontario shoreline from Niagara River to Joshua’s Creek

Funding from the CRCC Program: $3,100,000

Project Summary: This project will develop regional coastal resilience plans by working collaboratively with a broad range of stakeholders, including governments, Indigenous communities, businesses and experts, for three pilot project regions within the Great Lakes (Lake Huron, Lake Ontario, and Lake Superior). Each coastal resilience plan will identify adaptation actions, building on baseline science and risk assessments, to address climate change risks in these communities.

Project Name: Pelee Coastal Climate Resilience and Adaptation Action Plan

Recipient: Zuzek Inc.

Reach: Pelee Peninsula Region, Lake Eerie, Ontario

Location: Point Pelee East and Point Pelee West littoral cells converging at Point Pelee National Park

Funding from the CRCC Program: $1,000,000

Project Summary: This project will develop a coastal climate resilience and adaptation action plan in Point Pelee Peninsula in southwestern Ontario, a coastal community that is at risk from flooding, erosion and loss of coastal wetlands. Through the leadership of a multi-stakeholder Coastal Resilience Committee, this project will conduct a vulnerability assessment to future climate change impacts and co-develop integrated regional resilience plans and adaptation actions that are equitable, sustainable and transformative.