Abstract

In November 2022, the federal government released Canada’s first National Adaptation Strategy—a major step toward a more coordinated and effective nationwide response to the devastating effects of climate change.

Toward a Safer and More Resilient Canada evaluates the draft National Adaptation Strategy and the accompanying Action Plan against the key elements the Canadian Climate Institute first proposed in May 2022. Those four key elements can be summarized as: clear priorities and goals based on greatest risks, concrete policy measures to achieve them, mechanisms for improved policy coordination and delivery, and a robust framework for monitoring and evaluating progress.

In considering each of these four elements, we offer a series of recommendations to ensure Canada’s first National Adaptation Strategy rises to the challenge of a warming and increasingly volatile climate. First, we recommend that the federal government clarify how the Strategy’s chosen priorities address the biggest climate risks Canada faces. Second, throughout the Strategy and Action Plan, the government should more closely connect the identified goals, objectives, targets, and actions. Third, the government should do more to address fundamental challenges of uncoordinated and fractured governance when it comes to adaptation, which have undermined effective adaptation action in Canada. Finally, the proposed monitoring and evaluation framework should be more closely aligned with the objectives and targets in the Strategy.