FCM Dispatch: Day Two

Today’s biggest water news started with a morning announcement from the Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC). In partnership with FCM, IBC is offering the Watershed Awards—a new annual awards program to recognize Canadian municipalities that have taken proactive measures to reduce their vulnerability to storm and wastewater damage.

In an interview with Water Canada this afternoon, Dennis Prouse, director of federal government relations for IBC, said that there’s nowhere better to promote climate change adaptation than the local level. “This was a terrific opportunity to partner with FCM and raise awareness,” he says. “Water is becoming the source of an incredibly high number of insurance claims, especially to do with sewer and stormwater infrastructure.”

Prouse says that the judging panel for the awards will be comprised of people from FCM’s membership, the insurance industry, and urban infrastructure experts.

“We’re encouraging municipalities to come forward and tell people what they’re doing. Sharing stories is really the top goal of the awards,” he says.

The deadline for Watershed Awards submissions is Friday, April 9, 2010. There will be five regional awards and one national award. See the IBC website for details.

In other conference news, an afternoon session on green jobs highlighted ECO Canada‘s upcoming study on the state of the water and wastewater job market, due out at the end of February. Watch for an article on the same topic in Water Canada’s March/April issue.