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The report examines the intersection of urban growth, aging electricity infrastructure, and climate change in Canada, arguing that the deployment of smart grid technologies is essential for decarbonization and grid resiliency. It identifies a significant financing gap for modernization, estimating a need for CAD 350 billion in investment over 20 years. The document outlines four emerging business models—Energy Service Provider, Customer Energy Marketplace, Local Balancing Authority, and Smart City—and notes that their adoption varies by region. It highlights barriers to smart grid deployment, including technical complexity, cyber security risks, and regulatory frameworks that treat smart investments as traditional capital infrastructure. The report concludes by calling for a National Vision on Grid Modernization to coordinate stakeholders and align the energy transition with mid-century climate goals.

CAPE recommends that Calgary City Council stop using high-risk pesticides on municipal land, noting that 31 of 35 products used in 2016 fall into a high-risk category and that the city's large youth population is particularly vulnerable to reproductive, neurological, and respiratory health risks.

CAPE argues that the City of Calgary's pesticide toxicity report fails to list specific toxic products used in its IPM program, ignores epidemiological evidence regarding adverse health outcomes for children and pregnant women, and over-relies on a flawed federal registration process administered by Health Canada's PMRA.

The briefing argues that cities are critical for implementing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and presents an IISD tool that uses official Statistics Canada data to monitor SDG indicator trends in 13 major Canadian cities. Because global indicators cannot be directly applied to cities due to data limitations, the initiative identifies 12 specific indicators to track progress from 1995 to 2030. The tool aims to help policy-makers identify performance gaps, assess the feasibility of targets, and facilitate cross-scale coordinated action between municipal, provincial, and federal governments.

The document outlines how urban transportation infrastructure, including roads and railways, is vulnerable to rising temperatures and intense rainfall. It argues that sustainable transportation systems, urban densification, and the development of 'complete communities' that support walking and cycling can increase physical resilience, provide redundancy during climate shocks, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The document outlines strategies for enhancing the resilience of urban water and sanitation infrastructure against climate shocks, emphasizing multi-barrier methods, redundancy, decentralization, and green infrastructure.

The document outlines strategies for Alberta's cities to improve disaster preparedness in the face of climate change, emphasizing the integration of extreme weather projections, the creation of system redundancies, and the use of green infrastructure and building codes to reduce long-term costs.

The document argues that strengthening local food systems reduces vulnerability to climate-driven supply shocks in international chains. It recommends that cities protect agricultural land within and around municipal boundaries, utilizing innovative techniques like vertical agriculture and aquaponics. Additionally, it suggests that municipal policies and procurement should support small-scale food production and processing to enhance food security, employment, and community cohesion.

The document outlines strategies for increasing the resilience of the built environment against climate stresses, such as variable snow loads and urban heat island effects. It highlights the utility of design tools like the PIEVC protocol and the Climate Change Hazards Information Portal, as well as the role of green space and architectural protocols like LEED in mitigating climate risks.

The document argues that conventional infrastructure design standards must be strengthened to account for climate change, specifically noting that a warming climate increases cooling demands and exposes electricity grids to shocks like ice storms and droughts. It identifies modular and distributed renewable energy generation and storage as key to resilience. For ICT, the brief suggests increasing resilience through redundant landlines, ISP diversity, emergency roaming, and cell phone micro-charging backup systems. The work was developed for the cities of Edmonton and Calgary, focusing on the principles of robustness, redundancy, and resourcefulness.

The document outlines the intersection of climate change and public health in Canada, highlighting risks such as extreme heat, wildfires, and food insecurity, particularly in the Arctic and among Indigenous populations. It advocates for a rapid phase-out of coal-powered electricity by 2030, the implementation of a National Active Transport Strategy, and the integration of Health Impact Assessments into federal environmental processes to mitigate health risks and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The document argues that current building codes often fail to account for climate change, leaving urban infrastructure vulnerable to increasing temperature variability and extreme weather. It advocates for the adoption of robust design protocols like PIEVC and CCHIP, the mitigation of the urban heat island (UHI) effect through strategic green space planning, and the use of resource-efficiency certifications such as LEED and the Living Building Challenge to create a more resilient urban fabric.

The document argues that strengthening local food systems increases resilience to climate-driven supply shocks. It recommends that cities protect agricultural land through zoning and greenbelts, embrace soil-free technologies like vertical farming, and promote redundancy through municipal composting and diversified water sources. It also suggests supporting the 'cottage food industry' and community food centres to enhance local resourcefulness and food security.

The document argues that proactive investment in climate resilience reduces long-term financial risks and liability costs for municipalities. It advocates for 'multiple-bottom-line' accounting and the valuation of ecosystem services (eco-asset accounting) to prioritize cost-effective natural infrastructure over expensive engineered solutions. The briefing details various financing mechanisms to enhance urban robustness, redundancy, and resourcefulness, including green bonds, public-private partnerships, user fees, and the use of Alberta's carbon levy. It concludes with strategic recommendations to embed resilience into zoning, permitting, and planning processes.

The document argues that climate change increases risks to urban energy and ICT systems through extreme weather and shifting demand patterns. It proposes building resilience through three pillars: robustness (hardening infrastructure via protocols like PIEVC), redundancy (deploying decentralized renewable energy and diverse ICT channels), and resourcefulness (utilizing smart grid technology and emergency roaming). Specific recommendations include adopting the PIEVC protocol for new investments, implementing time-of-use pricing, and encouraging the use of distributed energy storage.

The document outlines how urban transportation infrastructure in Alberta is vulnerable to rising temperatures and extreme weather, such as flooding and heat waves. It argues that resilience can be achieved through 'robustness' (using tools like the PIEVC protocol and green infrastructure), 'redundancy' (diversifying transportation modes and fuel sources), and 'resourcefulness' (engaging citizens via mobile apps and supporting shared mobility). The briefing recommends that Calgary and Edmonton undertake full vulnerability assessments, promote compact urban forms, and implement multi-modal networks to mitigate climate risks.

The document argues that urban water and sanitation systems in Alberta face significant risks from increasing temperatures, precipitation shifts, and extreme weather events. To build resilience, it advocates for a 'multi-barrier' approach to robustness, the integration of redundancy through source water diversity and decentralized treatment, and the promotion of resourcefulness via low-impact development (LID) and green infrastructure. Specific recommendations for Calgary and Edmonton include conducting stochastic hydrology analysis on source watersheds, reviewing regulatory obstacles to decentralized water technologies, and exploring economic instruments like stormwater levies and water trading systems.

The document distinguishes between incremental adaptation, which improves existing practices, and transformational adaptation, which involves systemic structural changes to address the root causes of vulnerability. It argues that as climate risks in Alberta increase—including rising temperatures and more variable precipitation—cities like Calgary and Edmonton may need to adopt transformational approaches to avoid unsustainable development paths. The text outlines qualities of a resilient city, such as flexibility and integration, and uses the Netherlands' Delta Programme as a case study of a proactive, systems-based approach to flood management. It concludes with strategic, regulatory, and community recommendations to enable transformational change.

The document examines how urban ecosystems and green infrastructure provide critical environmental, social, and economic services that protect cities from climate shocks. It highlights projected temperature increases in Alberta and advocates for a resilience framework based on robustness, redundancy, and resourcefulness. The brief provides recommendations for municipal governments to integrate biodiversity into planning, use asset management for natural spaces, and engage citizens in environmental stewardship.

The document argues that Alberta's cities must move beyond historical climatic patterns to build resilience against more frequent and intense extreme weather events. It emphasizes integrating climate projections into emergency planning, investing in robust and redundant infrastructure, and fostering community resourcefulness through participatory engagement.