The Town of High River is hosting a Climate Change Webinar Tuesday February 28.

Mayor Craig Snodgrass will be a guest speaker at the event which is being put on by ClimateWest and Environment and Climate Change Canada.

He says it's not about the Town's opinion on climate change or what causes it and what'll fix it, but more about what steps the Town's taken over the last ten years to avoid another flood like 2013.

"The work that we did with mitigation on how to protect High River from another event like 2013, we're very much the poster child of what should be done in other communities," he says. "It's not just our berming and dyking systems but more on the development standards that we have changed as well as the hard decisions that we made in removing Beachwood and Wallaceville from the equation that were settled right in the middle of the flood plain."

Snodgrass points out that Alberta still has the lowest development standards in the entire country with a 1-in-100-year event standard.

"Every other province in Canada has at least a 1-in-200 and if I remember right the Maritimes is in the 1-in-900 range.

We are the lowest, which is embarrassing, and I've been trying very, very hard over the last ten years to have that changed but there's very much a reluctance in our government to change that and it's primarily based on 'well, the developers won't like that so we're not going to do it' which is weak."

He says it's governments of all stripes, not just the present government.

Other speakers at the webinar include Kerra Chomlak, Climate West, Casey Clinas and Tazmin Holly, Canadian Centre for Climate Services.

The event will feature Casey Clunas and Tazmin Holy, members of the Canadian Centre for Climate Services, as they present an adaptation example from a community, and discuss the role of the Map of Adaptation Actions in hosting a variety of adaptation projects from across Canada.

The Map of Adaptation Actions is a collection of climate change adaptation examples, with the purpose of aiding decision-makers and others acting on climate change adaptation. This webinar will explore the Map’s features and how it can be used to inspire adaptation projects.

The webinar goes from 1:00 to 2:30 p.m. Tuesday afternoon.

To register go to: https://bit.ly/3XlI43u