Formal Submission to the Government of Canada National Adaptation Strategy Public Engagement Process

The Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (CAPE) submitted recommendations for Canada's National Adaptation Strategy (NAS) in July 2022. The submission argues that the NAS must explicitly address the intersection of climate change and both physical and mental health, noting that physicians are already observing increased asthma and anxiety linked to wildfires and extreme heat. CAPE highlights that extreme heat disproportionately affects vulnerable populations, including those in poverty, racialized communities, and older individuals. The organization calls for the NAS to include specific outcomes and targets, protect nature for its own sake, and prioritize natural infrastructure—such as urban tree canopies—to mitigate heat and improve public health. Additionally, CAPE emphasizes the need to harden health infrastructure to ensure hospitals remain functional and serve as community safe havens during extreme weather events.

• Climate change impacts on health are already evident in clinical practice, with physicians reporting a rise in depression and anxiety during wildfire smoke events and a doubling of emergency room visits for asthma during the 2014 extreme wildfire summer in Yellowknife.
• Extreme heat events disproportionately impact vulnerable groups, including women, older individuals, people living in poverty, those in thermal insecure buildings, and residents of racialized or economically deprived neighborhoods with low greenness.
• CAPE recommends that the National Adaptation Strategy explicitly replace the term "health" with "physical and mental health" to ensure mental health impacts, such as ecological grief and anxiety, are adequately addressed and that the mental health benefits of community involvement in adaptation are recognized.
• Health systems and infrastructure are vulnerable to extreme weather, risking power loss, water shortages, and hospital evacuations; therefore, health facilities should be retrofitted as anchor institutions and safe havens for the community.
• Natural infrastructure, including urban green spaces and tree canopies, is recommended as a cost-effective and resilient alternative to gray infrastructure for reducing extreme heat, flooding, and storm surges while providing co-benefits like greenhouse gas sequestration.

APA

Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (2022). Formal Submission to the Government of Canada National Adaptation Strategy Public Engagement Process. https://cape.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/CAPE-Submission-to-National-Adaptation-Strategy-Engagement-Process-July-2022.pdf

Chicago

Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment. Formal Submission to the Government of Canada National Adaptation Strategy Public Engagement Process. 2022. https://cape.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/CAPE-Submission-to-National-Adaptation-Strategy-Engagement-Process-July-2022.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |author=Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment |title=Formal Submission to the Government of Canada National Adaptation Strategy Public Engagement Process |date=July 2022 |url=https://cape.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/CAPE-Submission-to-National-Adaptation-Strategy-Engagement-Process-July-2022.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{canadianassociationofphysiciansfortheenvironment2022formal, author = {{Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment}}, title = {{Formal Submission to the Government of Canada National Adaptation Strategy Public Engagement Process}}, publisher = {Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment}, year = {2022}, month = jul, url = {https://cape.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/CAPE-Submission-to-National-Adaptation-Strategy-Engagement-Process-July-2022.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }