Resilience Guidance and Policy
The meeting on October 5 2017 looked at resilience guidance and policies from a provincial, city and industry point of view. How does the province and city look at resilience, what is the process to determine the best policies? What can the industry do to provide guidance to its own members to enhance community resilience? Three speakers, representing province, city and industry, brought different focus and scope of interest to the table, yet the core criteria were consistent.
Speakers:
Chris Giannekos, Associate Deputy Minister, Ontario Ministry of Infrastructure - Building a Resilient Ontario: Challenges and Opportunities for Integrating Resiliency into Provincial Asset Management and Decision Making
The Province is transforming the infrastructure planning process to enable government to make strategic investment decisions that rely on evidence and proactive asset management to anticipate future changes and challenges. The Ministry of Infrastructure’s Associate Deputy Minister, Chris Giannekos, will speak about Ontario’s strategic approach to building resiliency into infrastructure planning.
Chris was appointed the Associate Deputy Minister at Ontario’s Ministry of Infrastructure in June 2016. In this role, he will lead the development and oversight of the province’s infrastructure plan. He has over 25 years of experience in the Ontario Public Service and has served in six ministries to date. Much of his career experience has focused on business planning, cabinet decision making processes, trade, municipal finance policy and federal-provincial relations. Most recently Chris served as the Assistant Deputy Minister, Office of the Budget in the Ministry of Finance where he provided oversight and coordinated the development of the annual Budget.
Elliott Cappell - Toronto's Resilience Strategy: Early Thinking and the Way Forward
Toronto was selected to join the 100 Resilient Cities initiative. Led by the Chief Resilience Officer, the first step in the process is the development of as Preliminary Resilience Assessment (PRA). The CRO will present initial findings from the PRA and look ahead to the development and implementation of a Resilience Strategy for the City of Toronto.
Elliott Cappell is the Chief Resilience Officer for the City of Toronto. In this role he is leading the development of Toronto’s Resilience Strategy and the City’s participation in the global 100 Resilient Cities network.
A native Torontonian, Elliott also held various roles in the Government of Ontario and worked with Global Affairs Canada. He is passionate about adaptation, urban development, the environment, and wildlife.
Elliott has also worked in over 20 countries internationally, including in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Europe. He has worked with and for a range of government clients including international donors such as the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID), USAID, the Millennium Challenge Corporation, the World Bank, International Finance Corporation, and UNDP. Most recently, he was the head of North America and head of Infrastructure and Climate Change strategy at Adam Smith International, a consulting firm. Elliott holds an MSc from the London School of Economics and a B.A. Honours from McGill University.
The presentation slides are shared here.
Alec Hay - Commercial Real Estate as Catalyst for Resilient Communities
The role and function of Commercial Real Estate is intimately bound with the resilience of communities and the enabling infrastructure. Drawing on research over the last five years and in close cooperation with the City of Toronto, BOMA Toronto has begun developing a guide for CRE owners and managers to better understand their relationship with local communities and the municipalities, to inform progressive and sustainable economic development and preserve the through life value of the property. The presentation will outline this work and explore considerations that the guide exposes.
Founding Principal of Southern Harbour, based in Toronto, Alec was previously the Resilience & Security leader at DIALOG, before which he served 25 years in the British Royal Engineers. A graduate of the University of Edinburgh and the Royal School of Military Engineering, he specialised over the last 25 years in fortifications and infrastructure development, which he practised around the World, from the High Arctic to South Atlantic, Europe to Central Asia and much in between. He is an adjunct professor at the University of Toronto Centre for Resilience of Critical Infrastructure, where he focuses on operational resilience of communities and infrastructure systems. He speaks internationally on infrastructure risk and resilience, and is past chair of the BOMA Toronto climate change resilience committee. Author of numerous books, articles and research papers and a director of Rethink Sustainability Initiative, he is a Principal and International Secretary of the Register of Security Engineers and Specialists.
The slides to the presentation can be found here.
October 5, 2017 at the University of Toronto Faculty Club.
Sponsored by:
