Toronto invites input to climate change mitigation and adaptation subcommittee

The City of Toronto’s Subcommittee on Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation plans to hold its inaugural meeting March 2 and the public is invited to make recommendations on its terms of reference, the city recently announced.

That subcommittee was established by the City of Toronto’s parks and environment committee.

“The first meeting will be an opportunity to set a Terms of Reference for the Committee,” according to a notice on the city website. “You can help us with this important task by either submitting written comments or delivering a deputation in person at the meeting.”

The subcommittee’s term ends next December. Its inaugural meeting is scheduled at the Toronto City council chambers at 7:00 p.m. March 2.

Two years ago, the parks and environment committee received a report titled Toronto’s Future Weather and Climate Driver Study: Outcomes Report. 

That report, completed by SENES Consultants Ltd. and commissioned by the Toronto Environment office, projects climate patterns for Toronto for 2040-49.

By that decade, the report forecasts, the maximum amount of rainfall in summer storms per hour will double. The report also suggested the maximum amount of precipitation in one day could be expected to increase, from 66 mm in the decade from 2000 to 2009, to 166 mm in the 2040 to 2049 time frame.

SENES predicted fewer storms producing 25 mm per day of precipitation, but “a small number of those ‘heavy storms’ will produce ‘very intense’ storms and produce much greater amounts of rainfall in short periods than previously seen with clear impacts on city infrastructure (culverts and drainage management) and an increased potential for flooding.”

Also for the 2040-2049 time frame, SENES predicted an average increase in winter temperature by 5.7 degrees Celsius, average annual temperature increase of 4.4 degrees Celsius, 26 fewer snow days per year, an average summer temperature increase by 3.8 degrees Celsius; and an increase – by 13 degrees Celsius – of the extreme daily minimum temperature.

The SENES report was submitted about eight months before Canada’s third-costliest natural catastrophe (measured by insured losses), when some areas of Toronto got more rain July 8, 2013 than they normally get during the entire month of July.