As climate change continues to exacerbate the frequency and severity of natural disasters, the importance of the profession's commitment to reverse the climate crisis by 2030 remains increasingly urgent. In April, CIP hosted a webinar on climate change to discuss climated-related hazards, planning strategies and policies and climate change mitigation. 

This webinar looked at lessons learned after one year of the COVID-19 pandemic and featured presentations from the City of Vancouver, City of Ottawa and students working on a COVID-19 toolkit. 

Participants heard from the PSB's Professional Education and Examination Committee (PEEC) and staff, as well as new RPP's, on how to prepare for success for the Professional Examination, the last step to becoming a Registered Professional Planner (RPP) or equivalent.

This webinar explored how combining planning and innovative technologies creates opportunities to tackle complex challenges. The webinar presenters spoke to smart developments, mitigating climate change and reducing energy poverty.

This webinar covered planning's role in affordable housing, from understanding rental housing in a smaller community, how non-profit and community-based housing can address the missing middle, and a step by step guide to affordable housing.

This webinar provides foundational knowledge of equity, diversity, and inclusion principles and terminology, and explores why these concepts are important for planning. Through this webinar, participants will be able to:

• Differentiate between diversity and inclusion and between equity and equality.
• Describe the business case for an inclusive culture that values diversity.
• Reflect on how their own dimensions of diversity could impact their perceptions and behaviours.
• Understand what actions the Canadian Institute of Planners is taking to advance equity, diversity and inclusion in the field of planning.

 
This webinar will be facilitated by Wyle Baoween and Aida Mas Baghaie from HRx, a Canadian training and consulting firm that provides practical solutions for building stronger, more inclusive communities and workplaces.

In this webinar, participants learned more about new research out of Dalhousie University focused on transit oriented development and about work being done on transportation and equity from the University of Toronto. The webinar concluded with a presentation from planners at the City of Quebec who presented on a new public transport network currently in development.

Neighbours often have questions and sometimes oppose the development of new non-market housing, especially supportive housing, in communities throughout British Columbia. BC Housing has created tools to help non-profit housing providers, service providers, and local governments address community opposition and gain acceptance for their projects. These include: • Community Acceptance of Non-Market Housing Toolkit • Exploring Impacts of Non-Market Housing on Surrounding Property Values Case Studies • Evaluation of Modular Supportive Housing We will cover key findings and how these tools are being used by planners to support development of non-market housing by BC Housing, the City of Vancouver, and the BC Non-Profit Housing Association. Attendees will learn about housing-specific community engagement, working with neighbours and local non-profit partners. The session will include small group discussions, where participants tackle sample case studies that highlight common challenges of community acceptance. Participants will apply the tools discussed along with their own experiences to brainstorm potential strategies for addressing common challenges.

SPONSORED BY: Real Estate Foundation of BC This engaging session will include presentation on the Net Zero policy objectives within the City of Markham. It will explore the challenges and real implementation solutions for low carbon development, currently taking place in the City of Markham. As a leadership model, the City has engaged in a partnership with Mattamy Homes and Enwave Energy to deliver a geo-exchange community energy system that will deliver on the city’s strategic direction for a Safe, Sustainable and Complete Community. The policy framework for climate change guides this project which includes strong community objectives around transportation and complete communities. The session will profile the Berczy Glen development and the approach to the partnership to advance a low density based geo-exchange district energy system. It will discuss the key aspects bringing the project together. The presenters will share the process to feasibility, including stakeholder engagement, and issues-based meetings to establish an approvals process for a non-regulated energy project within the subdivision approvals process. The project which received TAF funding to support feasibility outcomes and share lessons learned in the context of the partnership. This session is an implementation best practice for advancing low carbon solutions at a community scale.

Economic development fails by excluding segments of the population, criminalizing survival economic activities, displacing small businesses and cultural organizations, not protecting the affordability of job space, and prioritizing profit over people and planet. But it is possible for municipal economic development to contribute to strong and vibrant communities that work for everyone. When cities use an integrated sustainability framework to plan their economies – one that not only considers economic but also social, cultural, and environmental implications of its work – amazing things can happen. This panel will present the ways in which Vancouver is using a systems lens to plan for the future of its economy. The presenters are City of Vancouver and Vancouver Economic Commission staff, who will present their projects and, more importantly, how they are working together on economic development in order to achieve more holistic and integrated outcomes in order to 'change the system.'