Climate Adaptation Plan

The Climate Adaptation Plan is intended to be a risk-management and decision-making tool that helps the City better understand where changing conditions could create additional risks for Grande Prairie and identify practical, cost-effective measures that can be incorporated into the work the City already does.

Cost and value for taxpayers are important considerations for this project. The Climate Adaptation Plan is being supported through the Federation of Canadian Municipalities’ Green Municipal Fund – Local Leadership for Climate Adaptation program, along with City funding. The intent is not to start over or duplicate work that has already been completed. Existing City studies, plans, infrastructure information and operational knowledge will be used as inputs to the assessment.

The Plan will not replace regular maintenance, infrastructure planning, emergency management or the City’s existing budget and capital planning processes. It also does not mean that every existing community issue will be attributed to climate change. Rather, the Plan will help identify where changing conditions may increase or introduce risks and provide better information to support future decisions.

The Climate Adaptation Plan itself does not automatically create new capital projects or increase property taxes. Any recommendation requiring significant new funding would still be considered through the City’s normal budgeting, capital planning and Council approval processes, where costs, priorities and available funding can be evaluated.

Having a Climate Adaptation Plan may also improve the City’s ability to access external grant funding, including programs that require an adopted adaptation plan as a condition of eligibility. This could help offset the municipal share of future projects and reduce the amount that would otherwise need to be funded by local taxpayers.

Emergency preparedness is an important component of community resilience, and the CAP will consider how hazards such as wildfire, extreme heat, flooding and severe weather could affect people, infrastructure and City services.

Grande Prairie participates in the Grande Prairie Regional Emergency Partnership (GPREP), which coordinates regional emergency response. During the 2023 Dunes West Fire evacuation, for example, the City of Grande Prairie operated a reception centre where registered evacuees could access food and lodging.

Emergency accommodation arrangements depend on the type, size and location of an incident and the number of people affected. For that reason, it would not be appropriate to promise that a particular hotel will always be available during a future emergency. Emergency plans instead need the flexibility to mobilize appropriate facilities and resources based on actual conditions.

Flooding and drainage are directly relevant to the Climate Adaptation Plan and are among the risks being considered.

Residents have correctly identified that some locations experience recurring drainage problems. The CAP provides an opportunity to look beyond individual events and ask whether existing infrastructure, maintenance practices, development standards and natural drainage features remain appropriate under future rainfall and snowmelt conditions.

Potential approaches may include conventional infrastructure improvements as well as natural or lower-impact approaches such as wetlands, vegetation, improved soils and surfaces that temporarily store or absorb rainfall. The CAP will help determine where these approaches may provide practical benefit; it will not assume that one solution is appropriate everywhere.

Concerns about a specific property, street, catch basin or recurring flooding location should still be reported through AccessGP/311. Those reports provide the location-specific information needed by operational staff and should not wait for completion of the Climate Adaptation Plan.

Flooding and drainage are directly relevant to the Climate Adaptation Plan and are among the risks being considered.

The City’s 2018 Storm Drainage Master Plan also recognized the value of preserving wetlands and natural overland flow paths as part of the drainage system, particularly through new development. This established an early direction toward using natural drainage features alongside conventional stormwater infrastructure.

Potential approaches may include conventional infrastructure improvements as well as natural or lower-impact approaches such as wetlands, vegetation, improved soils and surfaces that temporarily store or absorb rainfall. The CAP will help determine where these approaches may provide practical benefit; it will not assume that one solution is appropriate everywhere.

The Climate Adaptation Plan can build on this existing work rather than creating a separate approach. It can also help identify where natural infrastructure, such as urban forest, wetlands or improved stormwater landscapes, may complement traditional infrastructure.

The question about glyphosate and Integrated Pest Management is broader than the CAP alone, but it is relevant to how the City manages landscapes under drought, changing growing conditions and invasive-species pressures. Any future changes to pesticide use should be assessed through the City's pest-management program using effectiveness, environmental risk, regulatory requirements and available alternatives rather than through the CAP in isolation.

For areas where mowing or mechanical treatment is not practical, including some naturalized areas, the City currently uses approved herbicides in a targeted manner to control regulated noxious weeds.

Wildfire resilience is an appropriate issue for the Climate Adaptation Plan, particularly where neighbourhoods, infrastructure and natural areas meet.

The City already undertakes FireSmart vegetation management in portions of the Bear Creek corridor. Current work includes managing dead and downed material, thinning dense vegetation, improving firefighter access and creating more defensible space near homes and infrastructure.

FireSmart guidance also recognizes that building materials, landscaping and vegetation immediately around a home can influence wildfire vulnerability. The suggestion to consider fire-resistant construction and landscaping is therefore relevant to the CAP.

However, requiring particular siding, landscaping or other construction features in new development would involve building, planning and regulatory considerations beyond the CAP itself. The Plan could recommend that these options be assessed, but any regulatory change would require its own review.

The City approved an Urban Forest Strategy in 2025 that specifically addresses preservation of existing trees, future planting, tree diversity and long-term risks including pests, disease, wildfire, development pressure and changing weather.

The Climate Adaptation Plan can build on this existing work rather than creating a separate approach. It can also help identify where natural infrastructure, such as urban forest, wetlands or improved stormwater landscapes, may complement traditional infrastructure.

Comments regarding loss of mature trees and establishment of newly planted trees are useful because successful adaptation depends not only on planting new vegetation but on maintaining it long enough to provide the intended benefit. Continued drought over the last several years have made watering critical, and the past growing seasons have been challenging. Planting resilient landscapes will help reduce operational costs for the City.

Cost and value for taxpayers are important considerations for this project.

The Climate Adaptation Plan is being supported through the Federation of Canadian Municipalities' Green Municipal Fund – Local Leadership for Climate Adaptation program, along with City funding. The intent is not to start over or duplicate work that has already been completed. Existing City studies, plans, infrastructure information and operational knowledge will be used as inputs to the assessment.

The CAP itself does not automatically create new capital projects or increase property taxes. Its role is to help the City identify and prioritize risks so that future decisions can be made with better information. Any recommendation requiring significant new funding would still be subject to the City's normal budgeting, capital planning and Council approval processes. Having a CAP will enable us to apply for grant funding that requires one, which could lessen the tax obligations for future projects.

An important measure of success will therefore be whether the plan can be used in real decisions, not simply whether a report is completed. The City has specifically identified practical, cost-effective actions and informed decision-making across City operations as objectives of the project.

Where an existing maintenance program, infrastructure renewal project or operational change can address a climate risk more efficiently than creating a new program, that should be considered before additional spending is recommended.

The Climate Adaptation Plan is intended to be a risk-management and decision-making tool. It will not replace regular maintenance, infrastructure planning, emergency management or the City's budget process, and it does not mean that every existing community problem will be attributed to climate change.

The objective is to understand where changing conditions could create additional risk for Grande Prairie and to identify practical, cost-effective measures that can be incorporated into the work the City already does.