Climate resilience
In Canada and abroad, the effects of climate change are evident. Impacts include flooding, wildfires, coastal erosion, thawing permafrost, extreme heat waves, droughts and ecosystem changes. These impacts increase risks to critical infrastructure and the delivery of federal services and activities. Canadians need to adapt, adjusting our activities and decisions to reduce climate risks, moderate harm or take advantage of new opportunities.
For example, we know that Canada is experiencing more frequent and intense extreme events, such as the forest fires, extreme heat and flooding of recent years, in many areas of the country. These areas include locations where federal services are delivered to Canadians and where many public servants live. The Government of Canada must ensure that Canadians still have access to their government services during climate disruptions.
Under the Greening Government Strategy, federal organizations have committed to enhancing the climate resilience of their critical assets, services and activities by 2035. To help guide decision-making, organizations assess climate risks to services and activities through a departmental climate risk assessment. Organizations also assess risks to critical assets through real property portfolio and facility-specific climate risk assessments. This work complements existing business continuity planning in federal organizations.
The following figures provide an overview of the progress on enhancing climate resilience at the departmental and individual facility levels.
Figure 5 - Text version
The pie chart on the left shows the status of the departmental risk assessments for 28 reporting departments. The pie chart on the right shows the status of measures taken to reduce risk identified in the 22 organizations that have completed or initiated departmental risk assessments.
| Status | Number of federal organizations |
|---|---|
| Departmental risk assessment | 28 |
Completed |
15 |
Initiated |
7 |
Not initiated |
6 |
| Measures taken on completed or initiated assessments | 22 |
Completed |
3 |
Ongoing |
15 |
Not initiated |
4 |
Figure 6 - Text version
The donut chart shows the number of critical assets where a facility-level risk assessment has or has not been completed.
| Facility assessment | Number of assets |
|---|---|
| Assessed | 253 |
| Not assessed | 722 |
| Federal organization | Services and Activities | Critical Assets | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Departmental risk assessment of services and activities | Measures taken to reduce risks | Climate resilient portfolio assessment | Percentage of critical assets with site-specific assessment | |
| Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada | Completed | Ongoing | Yes | 17% |
| Canada Border Services Agency | Completed | Ongoing | Yes | 0% |
| Canada Revenue Agency | Completed | Ongoing | N/A (does not own real property) | N/A |
| Canadian Food Inspection Agency | Completed | Completed | Yes | 0% |
| Canadian Forces Morale and Welfare Services | Not initiated | Not initiated | No | No critical assets |
| Canadian Space Agency | Completed | Ongoing | Yes | 0% |
| Correctional Service Canada | Not initiated | Not initiated | No | 49% |
| Communications Security Establishment Canada | Not initiated | Not initiated | No | 0% |
| Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada | Completed | Ongoing | No | No critical assets |
| Environment and Climate Change Canada | Completed | Completed | Yes | 0% |
| Employment and Social Development Canada | Not initiated | Ongoing | N/A (does not own real property) | 100% (Critical assets that are not real property) |
| Fisheries and Oceans Canada | Initiated | Not initiated | Yes | 27% |
| Health Canada | Completed | Ongoing | Yes | 0% |
| Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada | Completed | Ongoing | N/A (does not own real property) | N/A |
| Indigenous Services Canada | Completed | Ongoing | No | 0% |
| Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada | Completed | Ongoing | No | 50% |
| Library and Archives Canada | Not initiated | Ongoing | Yes | No critical assets |
| National Battlefields Commission | Not initiated | Not initiated | No | No critical assets |
| National Defence | Initiated | Completed | Yes | 0% |
| National Research Council Canada | Initiated | Not initiated | Yes | 100% |
| Natural Resources Canada | Initiated | Not initiated | Yes | 0% |
| Parks Canada | Completed | Ongoing | No | 0% |
| Public Health Agency of Canada | Initiated | Ongoing | No | 0% |
| Public Safety Canada | Completed | Not initiated | No | 0% |
| Public Services and Procurement Canada | Completed | Ongoing | No | 59% |
| Royal Canadian Mounted Police | Initiated | Ongoing | Yes | 2% |
| Shared Services Canada | Initiated | Ongoing | No | 0% |
| Transport Canada | Completed | Ongoing | No | 58% |
Key results
- 22 of 28 federal organizations have initiated or completed a departmental climate risk assessment. These assessments help identify and prioritize the critical services and activities that are at risk due to the impacts of climate change.
- Critical services and activities are defined in the Directive on Security Management as those that are critical to the health, safety, security or economic well-being of Canadians or to the effective functioning of government, based on an analysis of the potential impacts of disruption. Examples of critical services and activities are those that:
- ensure the safety of consumer health products, drugs, drinking water and food
- coordinate and support to key national players in the event of national emergencies
- respond to transportation-related emergencies
- Once the risks are identified, measures should be taken to reduce those risks. Eighteen organizations have completed or initiated such measures. Examples of risk reduction measures are:
- applying FireSmart Canada approaches to building and landscaping
- adapting site drainage to accommodate heavier precipitation
- using nature-based solutions for landscaping to manage both too much and too little precipitation
- At the individual building (facility) level, organizations focus first on critical assets, as reported through the Directive on Security Management. Local climate projections are then used in facility-specific climate risk assessments to determine climate hazards specific to that location and identify actions that will reduce the risks specific to the facility. Assets of high value that are at moderate to high risk are also prioritized for facility-level assessments.
- Of the 975 critical assets reported in 2023–24, 253 have been assessed while 722 remain to be assessed. If necessary, based on the outcome of the assessments, actions specific to the facility and local nature of the climate impact will be taken to reduce the risks.
- Organizations, particularly those that have larger real property portfolios, continue to identify and report on critical assets. For that reason, the number of critical assets is expected to increase in the coming years.