September 2026 Newsletter
Letter from the Executive Director
This fall, local and municipal elections are taking place across many provinces and territories. With new councils often comes new priorities. For many communities, the coming months will be about deciding what to carry forward, what to revisit, and where to focus next.
In this newsletter, we’re sharing new tools and resources developed to support local decision-making as governments assess priorities and make strategic decisions—from climate-informed planning and infrastructure to financing, equity and collaboration. We’re also reflecting on Adaptation Canada 2026 and looking ahead to a fall of learning and peer exchange. Whatever priorities you are currently working on, we are here to help advance climate action and achieve meaningful results.
Megan Meaney
Executive Director, ICLEI Canada
New Resources!
New! Catalogue of Fiscal Tools to Advance Adaptation
A resource for municipalities looking to fund, finance, and advance climate adaptation.
How can municipalities use and optimize existing fiscal tools to build climate-resilient infrastructure, reduce long-term risks, and support co-benefits? The new Catalogue of Fiscal Tools to Advance Adaptation provides a practical starting point to do just that. It includes a primer and 26 practical fiscal tool briefs. Use this resource to explore options, understand trade-offs, and consider which fiscal tools may be best suited to your municipality’s context and priorities.
New! A Practical Guide to Bringing Resilience Hubs to Your Community
Get practical guidance on how to plan, implement, operate, and monitor a climate resilience hub that meets community needs.
Resilience hubs can help communities prepare for, respond to, and recover from climate impacts while advancing equity and other community priorities. This practical guide gives local governments and community partners tools and guidance to plan, implement, operate, and monitor a resilience hub. Explore different hub models, practical tools and checklists, and real-world examples from communities across Canada.
New Climate Insight Features are Here
This update makes it easier for communities to make holistic planning decisions.
Climate Insight’s newest update provides communities the tools to help make smart decisions about where and how to build. Assess the long-term impacts of proposed residential developments with the new Land Use Impact Calculator, and see the big picture with the map’s new roads, utilities, and buildings data—added based on user demand. Start using these (and more!) updated functions to make impactful housing and infrastructure decisions.
New! Climate-Related Financial Disclosures Guide
Learn how to incorporate the impacts of climate risks and opportunities in financial reports to create transparency and accountability.
This guide was created to support Canadian municipalities and local governments in their climate-related financial disclosures journey. It identifies key steps in the process, current and promising practices in this emerging area, and resources that can be leveraged to make climate-related financial disclosure easier, more efficient, and more effective.
Upcoming Events and Opportunities
ORCCA Learning Series: Fall 2026
The Ontario Resource Centre for Climate Adaptation (ORCCA) is hosting a three-part online learning series on Thursday, October 8, Thursday, October 22, and Thursday, November 5 to help local governments and community organizations turn climate adaptation plans into action. Get practical tools and strategies to assess climate risk, navigate organizational change, and build the case for adaptation investment. Join us to explore how to navigate common sticking points in climate risk assessment, keep climate adaptation moving through change, and how to make the business case for adaptation.
Bringing Resilience Hubs to Your Community
As communities face more frequent and severe climate events, resilience hubs can help strengthen local preparedness while improving access to essential services and community support. Join us on Wednesday, October 21, from 2:00 to 3:00 pm ET to explore A Practical Guide to Bringing Resilience Hubs to Your Community and learn how communities can select a hub model that fits their needs, plan for implementation and monitoring, and draw on real-life examples from across Canada.
We Want to Hear from You
PCP Members: Take the PCP annual survey
PCP members are invited to complete the annual PCP Members Survey by September 30. The survey provides an opportunity to share how you have engaged with PCP, where the program has delivered value, and how the Secretariat can better support members in the coming year. Responses will also inform the PCP Secretariat’s 2025-2026 annual report.
Take part in N-ZAP's survey before September 30
Last chance to take the Municipal Net-Zero Action Research Partnership (N-ZAP) survey! No matter where you are in your climate action journey, we want to hear from you! Your insights will help researchers provide up-to-date, data-driven information on emerging trends to support Canadian municipalities on their route to a cleaner, healthier future.
Be Part of Climate Insight’s Evolution
Climate Insight is constantly updated based on user feedback. In no more than five minutes, use our feedback form to tell us how Climate Insight is working for you and what could be improved. The platform continuously evolves to meet user needs—so tell us what you think to be part of that journey.
Other Opportunities to Connect
Find Us at These Events
Canada Home Energy Justice Conference
Join the Building to Net-Zero team in Ottawa on October 6–7. Climate Change Project Lead Susan Morrissey Wyse will share findings from our cross-Canada business case project, High-Performance Buildings: Who Pays Today, Who Benefits Tomorrow? Stop by the ICLEI Canada booth to connect with our team, including Mitigation Lead Nathan Schaper.
The Adaptation Forum 2026
Join us in Winnipeg from October 20–21 to connect with our team. Stop by our booth to get a personalized walkthrough of how to use Climate Insight to support your work. Plus, hear from Senior Manager Juan Rueda and Project Director Sheri Young, who are both speaking at the forum and sharing their learnings from the BARC program and Climate Insight. Use the code ICLEI20 to get 20% off your registration.
From Our Global Network
Register for 9th Summit for Subnational Governments and Cities
Join cities, regions, and partners from around the world on October 24, 2026, in Yerevan, Armenia, for the 9th Summit for Subnational Governments and Cities at Biodiversity COP17. Under the theme Taking Action for Nature, the Summit will strengthen collaboration and elevate the role of cities and regions in global biodiversity action.
Save the Date: ICLEI World Congress 2027
The ICLEI World Congress 2027 is coming to Pohang, Republic of Korea, from October 12–15, 2027. Join local and regional governments and partners from around the world for four days of exchange, inspiration, and connection.
In Case You Missed It
An Important Week for Adaptation in Canada
More than 1,000 delegates from across the country gathered in Toronto for Adaptation Canada 2026 last week. Held once every three years, this national conference supports the implementation of Canada’s National Adaptation Strategy and helps prepare Canadians for a changing climate.
Conversations throughout Adaptation Canada 2026 highlighted that no community, government, organization, or sector can carry the work of adaptation alone. Climate resilience is built through connection, the careful use of limited resources, and through partnerships. It requires us to be efficient, but also collaborative, flexible, and deeply attuned to place. And like a honeycomb, adaptation is built cell by cell, project by project, relationship by relationship, decision by decision.
We will be sharing presentations and reflections in the coming weeks—stay tuned.
Thermal Energy Networks: How cities are turning waste into warmth
Watch this replay of the September BNZ Community of Practice (CoP) to explore thermal energy networks as a practical path forward in the face of aging utility infrastructure and to increase community energy resilience. Discover how shared underground loops—drawing on waste heat, geothermal, and renewable sources—can heat and cool entire neighbourhoods more efficiently than building-by-building systems.
Markets, Retrofits, and Incentives for High-Performance Buildings
Watch the replay of the August BNZ Community of Practice (CoP) to hear from Pembina Institute experts on the future of net-zero buildings. Explore market-based approaches to high-performance buildings, scaling deep retrofits in multi-unit residential buildings, and municipal retrofit incentive programs.
Team Updates
Welcome, Derek Schmucker!
As a Climate Change Program Assistant, Derek provides research, analysis, and project support across teams, including the Building Adaptive and Resilient Communities (BARC) program and the Ontario Resource Centre for Climate Adaptation (ORCCA). Prior to joining ICLEI Canada, Derek worked as an urban planner at Arcadis and an interdisciplinary strategist at Brookfield Sustainability Institute. He takes a relationships-based, interdisciplinary approach to planning and problem-solving, and is constantly looking for ways to improve designs, systems, and structures.
Our Quebec Office Has Moved
Our Quebec office has moved! You can now find us at 801 Brennan, Montréal, next to the beautiful Lachine Canal and multiple cycling connections. We share this new space with the City of Montreal’s Environment and ecological transition services. We are thrilled to connect with this vibrant, dynamic team to learn about their innovative and sustainable projects, and exchange ideas and expertise.
Reach us
ICLEI Canada
401 Richmond St W (Suite 204)
Toronto, ON M5V 3A8