Calgary Elections: The Future of the City with a Changed Climate – Calgary | The Canadian News

The performance of Calgary’s public services is not a headline issue for voters going to the polls this month, with the pandemic and economic recovery a priority. But when it affects what does and does not come out of the taps, Calgarians are sure to pay attention.

“Calgary is actually a relatively large city on two small rivers,” said Harpreet Sandhu, watershed strategy leader.

Those rivers are fed by rain and snow in the foothills and mountains basin west of Calgary. But trends affecting rivers are “fundamentally changing” how and when the city receives water.

“We know that the snow cover on the mountain has been melting at the beginning of the year. We have longer, hotter and drier summers, ”Sandhu said.

“And we also know that when we have storms, it will be more intense and that will definitely affect the flooding of the rivers, but it is also changing the pattern of when and how we receive water.”

Sandhu says these changes are due to climate change.

Calgarians can expect to have to change their water use in the next decade, according to the city’s water security report released last year.

“The city will not be able to provide the full amount of water that customers demand on a peak day in the mid-2030s,” the report says.

Sandhu says the city’s water license issued by the province limits how much it can draw from the Bow and Elbow rivers, and the city has to balance demand from citizens. When combined with the changing patterns of precipitation that feed the rivers, the city’s ability to supply water to the taps will be challenged.

Sandhu said the city has come a long way to reduce water consumption and is working to finalize a city-wide drought management plan.

That plan will have to be approved by the next city council, as the 15 councilors and the mayor continue to consider climate change and resilience.

“I think many of these questions about climate change and our changing water supply will be the most important,” Sandhu told Global News. The extreme heat of last summer, particularly the June heat wave, caught people’s attention, he said.

It is one of the many problems related to climate change that the city council will face.

“There are two main areas of climate policy that the city, or just governments in general, can pursue: adaptation … and mitigation,” Calgary Climate Hub’s Robert Tremblay told Global News.

Mitigation involves reducing emissions and adaptation involves managing the risks of climate change.

The City of Calgary unanimously approved the Climate Resilience Strategy in 2018, with the primary goal of reducing 80% of the City of Calgary’s 2005 emissions by 2050. Adaptation and mitigation strategies are included in the strategy.

In this election, Tremblay and the Climate Hub are advocating for the city to adopt a goal of net zero by 2050.

“That’s really the context for all of the city’s climate action.”

The non-profit organization’s electoral platform is calling for other measures, such as doubling the city’s tree canopy, building the Green Line and improving traffic, increasing the city’s electric vehicle charging network, and making Enmax adopt more aggressive emission reduction goals.

Tremblay said that while most climate policies are set at the federal or provincial level, in the absence of action from either of them, cities can intervene.

“The city, as a local government, has the most direct interaction with the people, right?”

The city has already been hit by disasters and severe weather events, such as the 2013 flood or the billion-dollar hail storm in 2020.

But more extreme weather can threaten other parts of the city’s infrastructure.

Tremblay pointed to the slow-moving polar vortex and stubborn heat dome, both of which plagued Calgary in the past year. Both put large loads on the electrical grid. In June and July, Alberta’s electrical system operator issued alerts.

“We need to get used to new extremes and make sure our infrastructure is maintained,” Tremblay said, pointing to structural failures in electrical systems in Texas and the Pacific Northwest last year.

Calgary’s location on the Bow and Elbow rivers gives the city an edge and a responsibility, Sandhu said.

“We are fortunate: we are located so close to the mountains,” said the watershed strategist. “We are a great place to invest because we have that water supply.

“But going forward, we have to make sure we make the right decisions and the right investments to ensure water security for future generations.”