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Bill 198, Ontario Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience Act, 2024

Tabuns, Peter

Pasma, Chandra

Shaw, Sandy

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Original

Bill 198 Original (PDF)

EXPLANATORY

NOTE

The

Bill enacts the Ontario Climate Change Adaptation and

Resilience Act, 2024 . The Act provides that the Minister of Environment,

Conservation and Parks or such other member of the Executive Council as may be

assigned the administration of this Act under the Executive

Council Act shall develop and publish a strategic action plan that aims

to ensure that Ontario citizens, communities, infrastructure and natural

environment are protected from the risks and impacts of climate change. The Act

also requires the Minister to establish an arm’s length Ontario Climate

Adaptation Fund to support the implementation of adaptation and resilience

activities included in the strategic action plan. The Minister is also required

to establish the Ontario Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience Resource

Centre. The Lieutenant Governor in Council is required to establish a

Whole-of-Government Climate Adaptation Co-ordination Secretariat that, among

other things, will co-ordinate and assist with the implementation of

science-aligned climate adaptation plans for all government ministries and

agencies, including formulating and implementing policy, legislation and

regulations.

Bill 198 2024

Act providing a climate change adaptation program for Ontario

CONTENTS

Preamble

Definitions

Appropriation

required

Strategic

action plan

Ontario

Climate Adaptation Fund

Ontario

Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience Resource Centre

Ontario

Whole-of-Government Climate Adaptation Co-ordination Secretariat

Review

of strategic action plan

Contents

of strategic action plan

Flood

management and protection programs

Extreme

heat preparedness and resilience

Protection

from impacts of intense storms and extreme weather

Protection

from wildfires

Resilience

of infrastructure

Agriculture

and food security

Resilience

of the natural environment and ecosystems

Regulations

Commencement

Short

title

Preamble

Every day brings new reports of storms, floods, heat waves,

droughts and wildfires that are unprecedented in scale and intensity and that

are clearly attributable to climate change. Slower-onset effects are also

obvious: changing seasons and rainfall patterns, disappearing snowpack, warmer

lakes and rivers, more frequent freeze-thaw cycles, expanding pest populations

and worsening air quality. As the Provincial Climate Change Impact Assessment

shows, there are growing impacts in every region and sector that threaten our

health and security, our homes, our forests and wildlife, our electricity

network, our roads and our water supply.

While

our government must act decisively to reduce the carbon emissions that are the

root cause of these catastrophic events, it is also our responsibility to

protect our citizens and safeguard our communities and natural ecosystems from

the effects of these events now and in the future. We do this through

comprehensive, transparent and collaborative adaptation planning and

implementation, prioritizing the protection of our most vulnerable citizens and

ecosystems.

Therefore,

His Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Legislative Assembly of

the Province of Ontario, enacts as follows:

Definitions

1 In this Act,

“adaptation”

means actions taken to understand and reduce the negative effects of climate

change on people, communities and nature; (“adaptation”)

“Minister”

means the Minister of Environment, Conservation and Parks or such other member

of the Executive Council as may be assigned the administration of this Act

under the Executive Council Act ; (“ministre”)

“resilience”

means the capacity to prepare for, withstand and recover from disruptive

patterns and events. (“résilience”)

Appropriation

required

2 The following provisions do not apply unless money has been

appropriated by the Legislature for the purpose of those provisions:

Section

2. Subparagraph

1 vi of

section 9.

3. Paragraph

10 of

section 9.

4. Paragraph

4 of

section 10.

5. Paragraph

5 of

section 12.

6. Paragraph

8 of

section 14.

7. Paragraph

6 of

section 15.

8. Paragraph

7 of

section 15.

Strategic

action plan

(1) On or before the day that is two years after

the day this

section comes into force, the Minister shall develop and publish a

strategic action plan that aims to ensure that Ontario citizens, communities,

infrastructure and natural environment are protected from the risks and impacts

of climate change, including floods, intense storms, extreme heat, droughts and

wildfires, as well as more slowly developing climate hazards.

Same

(2) In

developing the strategic action plan, the Minister shall,

(

a) draw

on reports concerning climate change adaptation prepared for the government by

the former Environmental Commissioner of Ontario, the Auditor General, the

Advisory Panel on Climate Change and the Provincial Climate Change Impact

Assessment and Adaptation Best Practices report; and

(

b) conduct

an open and intensive process of engagement and consultation with Indigenous

partners, municipal and regional governments, conservation authorities,

existing Ontario adaptation institutes and experts, public health agencies and

community-based and non-governmental organizations.

Ontario

Climate Adaptation Fund

(1) On or before the day that is two years after

the day this

section comes into force, the Minister shall establish an arm’s

length Ontario Climate Adaptation Fund to support the implementation of

adaptation and resilience activities included in the strategic action plan

developed and published under

section 3.

Functions

(2) The

Ontario Climate Adaptation Fund carry out the following functions:

1. The

Fund shall dispense public funds independently of the government, but shall be

accountable to the Legislative Assembly for its operations and decisions.

2. The

Fund shall provide financial support to the strategic action plan through

direct financing of adaptation and resilience activities and through the

administrative and financial backing of innovative adaptation funding

initiatives such as green revolving funds.

Ontario

Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience Resource Centre

5 On or before the day that is one year after the day this

section comes into force, the Minister shall establish the Ontario Climate

Change Adaptation and Resilience Resource Centre to perform the following

functions:

1. Collaborate

with existing climate change adaptation institutes and resource centres in

Ontario to provide a comprehensive source of information on climate change

impacts, adaptation and resilience for provincial actors including government

ministries, municipalities, concerned sectoral and non-governmental

organizations and the public.

2. Create

one-window access to,

i. regional

and local climate and hydrological data, and

ii. monitoring

of regional climate change impacts and adaptation strategies for Ontario

communities and sectors.

3. Aid

in the practical application of research knowledge by providing synthesis,

interpretation and translation of scientific information for stakeholders and

the public.

4. Revive

the initiative for an Ontario Association of Adaptation Practitioners to

support collaboration among adaptation researchers and practitioners in

government, academia, existing adaptation institutes, conservation authorities,

municipalities and non-governmental organizations in the province.

5. Host

communities of practice that share information and strategies on adaptation

action in specific sectors, regions or communities.

6. Assist

governments and government departments with adaptation planning and solutions

by undertaking risk and opportunity assessments, conducting demonstration and

pilot projects and providing direct programming, such as the provision of

planning and delivery of services, to those communities with limited capacity

and resources to address climate risks on their own.

7. Assist

with capacity building, engagement and public awareness, including by

undertaking case studies, training, workshops, webinars and tutorials for

adaptation planning.

8. Advise

the province, municipal governments, business associations and other

associations on adaptation policies, regulations, investments and incentives

which can increase climate resilience.

9. Evaluate

and report annually to the Legislative Assembly on adaptation progress in the

province.

Ontario

Whole-of-Government Climate Adaptation Co-ordination Secretariat

(1) The Lieutenant Governor in Council shall

establish a Whole-of-Government Climate Adaptation Co-ordination Secretariat.

Functions

(2) The

Whole-of-Government Climate Adaptation Co-ordination Secretariat shall perform

the following functions:

1. Co-ordinating

and assisting with the implementation of science-aligned climate adaptation

plans for all government ministries and agencies, including formulating and

implementing policy, legislation and regulations as required.

2. Engaging

and consulting with the Ontario Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience

Centre, including by drawing on the climate adaptation expertise available from

the Centre.

3. Performing

research as needed to advance co-ordination of adaptation plans.

4. Reporting

to the Legislative Assembly on the progress of all government ministry and

agency adaptation plans.

5. Engaging

and consulting with relevant federal and municipal climate adaptation bodies.

6. Engaging

and consulting with external experts, including those from civil society and

Indigenous communities.

Review

of strategic action plan

(1) On or before the day that is four years

after the day this

section comes into force, and every two years thereafter,

the Legislative Assembly shall review the strategic action plan and make any

changes to the plan that it considers necessary to ensure that the plan best

meets its stated aims.

Strategic

action plan made public

(2) The

Minister shall ensure that the strategic action plan and any amended plan are

published on a website of the Government of Ontario.

Contents

of strategic action plan

8 The strategic action plan shall include the following:

1. Acknowledgement

of key risks to Ontarians caused by the impacts of climate change, as

illustrated by the Provincial Climate Change Impact Assessment dated January

2. Identification

of communities and populations that are particularly vulnerable to the risks

acknowledged under paragraph 1.

3. Expansion

and enhancement of flood management and protection programs, including through

the measures set out in

section 9.

4. Improvement

of extreme heat preparedness and resilience, including through the measures set

out in

section 10.

5. Providing

protection from the impacts of intense storms and extreme weather, including

through the measures set out in

section 11.

6. Providing

protection from wildfires, including through the measures set out in

section

7. Increasing

the resilience of infrastructure such as housing, public buildings, stormwater

and wastewater systems and energy and transportation infrastructure, including

through the measures set out in

section 13.

8. Increasing

the resilience of agriculture and enhancing food security, including through

the measures set out in

section 14.

9. Strengthening

the resilience of the natural environment and ecosystems, including through the

measures set out in

section 15.

10. Establishment

of an Ontario Youth Climate Corps to give young Ontarians the opportunity to

get hands-on experience in activities such as the following while gaining

knowledge, skills, a fair wage and assistance with the costs of post-secondary

education:

i. Restoring

and enhancing Ontario’s natural landscape.

ii. Wildfire

risk reduction.

iii. Resilient

home retrofits in vulnerable communities.

Flood

management and protection programs

9 The measures referred to in paragraph 3 of

section 8 are

the following:

1. Preparation

of annual reports on the implementation of commitments set out in Ontario’s

flooding strategy, including,

i. the

work of the Multi-agency Flood Mapping Technical Team,

ii. the

work of the Urban Flooding Work Group,

iii. enhanced

flood forecasting and early warning,

iv. enhanced

emergency response activities,

v. disaster

recovery assistance, and

vi. funding

for flood risk reduction.

2. Prioritization

of the work of the intra-governmental working group on urban flooding, and

requiring that the working group provide a report and strategy to the

Legislative Assembly no later than December 1, 2025.

3. Expanding

support for conservation authorities, municipalities and Indigenous authorities

to prepare or update fluvial and pluvial flood risk maps, prioritizing areas of

the province where these maps are currently lacking and which are determined to

be at significant risk of flooding based on historical data and experience and

projections for the future.

4. Making

flood-risk maps and property-level flood risk information, including

information on historic and projected flood damage, available to the public on

a user-friendly online portal that can be accessed free of charge.

5. Restoring

the mandate and powers of conservation authorities to safeguard Ontario’s water

resources, protect life and property from flooding and protect and restore

Ontario’s woodlands, wetlands and natural habitat.

6. Implementing

recommendations from Ontario’s Wetland Conservation Strategy including programs

to identify, protect, restore and create wetlands and to protect shorelines and

upland forests that reduce the impacts of intense precipitation and help

control flooding.

7. Completing

and issuing Ontario’s Low Impact Development Stormwater Management Guidance

Manual no later than December 1, 2024.

8. Adopting

nationally-recognized best practices in current CSA standards for flood

resilience and risk reduction, including CSA W204 (Flood Resilient Design of

New Residential Communities), CSA Z800 (Guidelines on Basement Flood Protection

and Risk Reduction), CSA W210 (Prioritization of Flood Risk in Existing

Communities), CSA W211 (Management Standard for Stormwater Systems), CSA W200

(Design of Bioretention Systems), CSA W201 (Construction of Bioretention

Systems) and CSA PLUS 4013 (Technical Guide: Development,

Interpretation and

Use of Rainfall Intensity-duration-frequency (IDF) Information: Guideline for

Canadian Water Resources Practitioners).

9. Providing

funding for municipal grants and incentives for homeowners to install flood

protection measures in areas at higher risk of flooding.

10. Working

with the federal government to designate areas at highest risk of flooding as

federal flood hazard areas in order to prioritize infrastructure and relocation

investments for homes at high risk of flooding.

11. Requiring

new developments or redevelopment projects to capture and infiltrate the first

1 or 1.5 inches of rain from any impervious portion of the development site.

12. Conducting

a province-wide information campaign on home flood protection, as recommended

by the Advisory Panel on Climate Change in its 2021 report.

13. Ensuring

flood forecasting and alert systems are in place across the province, and

providing sufficient notice for deployment of flood protection measures in case

of a flood emergency.

Extreme

heat preparedness and resilience

10 The measures referred to in paragraph 4 of

section 8 are

the following:

1. Conducting

extreme heat risk mapping to identify vulnerable areas and populations at

elevated risk from extreme heat events.

2. Developing

and implementing a system for identifying and publishing timely data on

heat-related deaths and illnesses in the province.

3. Requiring

that official plans incorporate strategies to assess and reduce urban heat

islands.

4. Providing

funding for municipalities to plan and implement urban cooling strategies

including cool and green roofs, cool pavements and parking lots, green

corridors, expansion of tree canopies, green spaces and parks in

nature-deprived areas and the provision of shade structures.

5. Assessing

the need for cooling in schools, childcare centres, hospitals and nursing homes

and developing a strategy with targets and dates to reduce heat loads and

provide cooling during extreme heat events.

6. Amending

the Residential Tenancies Act, 2006 to set a

maximum temperature requirement for rental units.

7. Providing

to the owners of rental properties that currently lack cooling systems grants

and incentives for retrofits, including heat pumps for individual units, that

reduce heat loads or provide cooling and allow compliance with the maximum

temperature requirement referred to in paragraph 6.

8. Conducting

an annual province-wide awareness campaign about the risks of extreme heat and

how to stay safe, using messaging modes most likely to reach people at elevated

risk.

9. Passing

and enforcing regulations related to heat stress under the Occupational Health and Safety Act to protect workers

whose work exposes them to hot conditions, such as roofing, road paving and

agriculture.

Protection

from impacts of intense storms and extreme weather

11 The measures referred to in paragraph 5 of

section 8 are

the following:

1. Providing

provincial support for investigation into the incidence and intensity of

thunderstorms and associated winds, tornadoes, blizzards, ice storms, freezing

rain and hail in Ontario as climate change increases, and for organizations

which undertake such investigations, such as the Northern Tornadoes and

Northern Hail projects.

2. Assessing

and improving the system for issuing timely severe weather warnings and alerts

for Ontario in order to ensure that vulnerable populations receive alerts,

pre-evacuation notices and other important information.

Protection

from wildfires

12 The measures referred to in paragraph 6 of

section 8 are

the following:

1. Assessing

Ontario’s increased susceptibility to wildland fires in light of recent fire

seasons and factors such as increasing pest infestations, identifying

communities and regions at particular risk and providing a report to the

Legislative Assembly no later than December 1, 2025.

2. Updating

the Forest Fires Prevention Act and the regulations

made under that Act to, at minimum, extend the fire season in recognition that

wildfires are occurring earlier than April 1 and ending later than October 31

each year.

3. Expanding

to a year-round operational model for Ontario Wildfire Management, with a

permanent workforce that is recruited, trained and paid at a level consistent

with the skills and knowledge required for the work and the dangers encountered

in performing the work.

4. Assessing

and developing a program to improve the retention of experienced fire rangers

and crew leaders.

5. Funding

community-level FireSmart programs for communities in the wildland-urban

interface to reduce the risk and impacts of wildfire.

6. Reinstating

environmental assessment and requiring climate change impact assessment of

logging and timber management to ensure that forestry industry practices do not

increase wildfire risk.

7. Incentivizing

more active forms of forest management, including tree thinning, deadwood

removal and burning practices to promote healthy and resilient forests which

help reduce wildfire fuels and prevent wildfire propagation as prescribed by

regulation.

8. Modifying

reforestation requirements after logging and guidelines to encourage

regenerative forestry and more diverse, resilient and ecologically functional

forest landscapes.

9. Developing

a strategy for remediation of areas of forest burned by wildfires to ensure

their return to productive ecosystems.

Resilience

of infrastructure

13 The measures referred to in paragraph 7 of

section 8 are

the following:

1. Developing

guidelines on incorporating climate change into risk management and asset planning,

building on guides and standards already available in Canada including

adaptation guides prepared by the National Research Council’s Climate Resilient

Buildings and Core Public Infrastructure programs, CSA Standards for durability

in buildings, bridge design and wastewater treatment plants and the Canadian

Electricity Association’s climate adaptation guide.

2. Implement

regulatory obligations on operators of critical infrastructure, including

energy and utilities, communications, transportation, water and stormwater to

incorporate and, where necessary, disclose climate change risks in their

strategic and operational plans.

3. Requiring

that infrastructure planning and design factor in climate change scenarios for

all major repairs, replacements or new infrastructure in the province,

including electricity generation, transmission and distribution, as well as

roads, bridges, culverts, ports infrastructure and stormwater management.

4. Updating

on an urgent basis the Ontario Building Code to incorporate climate change

resiliency requirements that take more severe climate conditions and events

into account and ensure new buildings and buildings undergoing major retrofits

can better withstand severe winds, heavy rainfall, snow loads and wildfires.

5. Requiring

annual reports from the Ontario Critical Infrastructure Assurance Program that

include,

i. the

makeup of sector working groups,

ii. assessment

of sector vulnerabilities related to climate change,

iii. assessment

of the risk of cascading failures due to climate-related events,

iv. recommendations

to decrease vulnerability to the impacts of climate change, and

v. progress

reports on the implementation of agreements and procedures to ensure the

resilience of Ontario’s infrastructure with respect to the impacts of climate

change.

6. Following

procedures to recover from infrastructure failures after extreme weather

events.

Agriculture

and food security

14 The measures referred to in paragraph 8 of

section 8 are

the following:

1. Committing

to and prioritizing the protection of prime agricultural land from urban

expansion in land use planning and policy.

2. Revising

Grow Ontario to incorporate the following:

i. Consideration

of climate impacts and adaptation in Ontario agriculture.

ii. Greater

emphasis on the production of vegetables, fruits and grains for human

consumption to reduce dependence on imports.

iii. Increased

support for smaller-scale producers, including investments in local markets,

regional food hubs for storage and local distribution and appropriately-scaled

localized processing facilities.

3. Developing

a strategy to identify and invest in the implementation of on-farm climate

change adaptation practices including through the following:

i. Diversification

of crops and livestock.

ii. Maintenance

of existing and creation of new windbreaks and buffer strips.

iii. Retrofitting

farm infrastructure for climate resilience and for the purpose of protecting

and enhancing on-farm natural infrastructure, water storage and supply

programs.

4. Expanding

the Environmental Farm Plan to include climate change-based risk assessment

support.

5. Reactivating

and updating Ontario’s Agricultural Soil Health and Conservation Strategy

(2017) and Soil Health Working Group to guide collaborative soil health

research, investments and activities to ensure the climate resilience of

agricultural soils in the province.

6. Supporting

research into and trials of crop varieties resilient to extreme heat and

drought.

7. Incentivizing

the development and expansion of regional and on-farm water storage, expansion

of irrigation systems and capacity and expansion of pumping capacity to help

with increasing incidence of drought.

8. Reviving

the Water Resource Adaptation and Management Initiative which funded

demonstration and pilot projects to help Ontario farmers be better prepared for

drought and adapt their water use practices to deal with the growing impacts of

climate change.

9. Investigating

the potential for agriculture-specific local weather forecasting to aid in

day-to-day field activity planning, prepare for severe weather and, with

medium-term and longer-term forecasts, to help with planning.

Resilience

of the natural environment and ecosystems

15 The measures referred to in paragraph 9 of

section 8 are

the following:

1. Providing

an action plan for the implementation of Naturally Resilient – MNRF’s Natural

Resource Climate Adaptation Strategy (2017-2021).

2. Investing

in improved technology to identify and map Ontario’s natural assets and prepare

a public inventory and assessment of the current condition of Ontario’s natural

infrastructure.

3. Developing

a program to maintain, promote and enhance ecosystem connectivity and for the

protection and management of climate refugia for species threatened by climate

change.

4. Providing

a plan to conserve peatlands and other carbon-dense ecosystems as globally

important ecosystems.

5. Providing

guidance and resources for conservation authorities and municipalities to,

i. inventory

natural assets such as wetlands, forests, meadows, parks, soils, urban trees

and naturalized stormwater ponds,

ii. assess

the condition of these natural assets, and

iii. implement

a plan to increase and integrate such assets into infrastructure asset

management.

6. Reinstate

provincial funding for planting of native trees as well as shrubs and

vegetation on public and private lands in southern and central Ontario, with a

focus on lowland and wetland sites and along roadsides in southern Ontario.

7. Restore

the powers of conservation authorities as they existed before 2019 and ensure

funding adequate to their core mandate of ensuring the conservation,

restoration and responsible management of Ontario’s water, land and natural

habitats, safeguarding our watersheds, protecting people and property from

flooding and other natural hazards and protecting our drinking water.

Regulations

16 The Lieutenant Governor in Council may make regulations,

(

a) defining

terms for the purposes of paragraph 7 of

section 12;

(

b) establishing

an incentivization scheme for the purposes of paragraph 7 of

section 12.

Commencement

17 This Act comes into force on the day it receives Royal

Assent.

Short

title

18 The

short title of this Act is the Ontario

Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience Act, 2024 .

Date Bill stage Event Outcome Committee

May 16, 2024

First Reading

Ordered for Second Reading

May 16, 2024

First Reading

Vote

Carried

First Reading

May 16, 2024

Carried

Ordered for Second Reading

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