Resilience Strategy

 

Toronto is one of the fastest growing, most diverse, and safest cities in the world. But like other global cities, Toronto’s success is paired with significant challenges, like growing inequality and a changing climate that is bringing more extreme weather. We need strategies to support our communities as they deal with these challenges and to help make our city more resilient.

The City is working to build a plan to make Toronto more resilient. The City has a two-year mandate to develop the first-ever Resilience Strategy, which will be released in mid-2019. We have engaged 8,000 residents and over 80 community and industry organizations in the development of the Strategy and are excited to share this work in the coming months.

Resilience Is

Resilience is the ability to survive, adapt and thrive in the face of any challenge.

In Toronto, we experience two kinds of challenges:

  • acute, climate-related shocks, which are sudden, sharp events that threaten the immediate well-being of our city
  • chronic stresses, or daily challenges that weaken the fabric of the city and impact its ability to bounce back in response to a shock

Learn more about these challenges and neighbourhood resilience, towers and climate resilience.

Initiate (Spring 2016 – Fall 2017)

Toronto is selected as a member of the 100 Resilient Cities network and the process to understand Toronto’s resilience challenges gets underway with the development of the Preliminary Resilience Assessment.

Develop (January – November 2018)

Launch of the public process to build Torontonians’ understanding of resilience, as well as the Resilient Stories campaign. Development of the vision, principles, and emerging directions of the Strategy.

Finalize (December 2018 – Summer 2019)

Development of the final Resilience Strategy and public launch.

The Toronto Home Resilience Pilot Program is now closed. Nearly 200 Home Flood Protection Assessments were delivered to Toronto homeowners during the pilot. Thank you to the Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation, promotional and funding partners, the delivery agent, and program participants for helping make the program a success.

Subsidized registration is now closed, however, homeowners interested in the program can visit: homefloodprotect.info/register/?area=toronto

On April 16, 2019, the Intact Centre on Climate Change released a report that summarizes top basement flood risks and cost-effective actions to address them.

Engagement and consultation on Toronto’s first Resilience Strategy has now ended. Stay tuned for ways you can get involved in the implementation of the Strategy once it is released.

As a member of the 100 Resilient Cities Network (100RC), a global community of cities working together to build urban resilience, the City is working to improve our resilience to the physical, social, and economic challenges of the 21st century.

Through 100RC, the City shared resilience knowledge and best practices and fostered relationships and partnerships with other leading cities. In addition, the City received funding and resources to:

  • hire a Chief Resilience Officer to coordinate, oversee, and prioritize resilience-building activities
  • support the development of a comprehensive Resilience Strategy for Toronto
  • collaborate with the 100RC Platform of Partners to support the implementation of Toronto’s Resilience Strategy, including solutions that integrate big data, analytics, technology, resilience land-use planning, infrastructure design, innovative financing supports, and insurance products

Hired in June 2017, Toronto’s Chief Resilience Officer, Elliott Cappell, is leading the city-wide resilience-building efforts and overseeing the development and implementation of a comprehensive Resilience Strategy. The position is fully funded by 100 RC.