602A - How Transformational Climate Action is Key to Unlocking Sustained Economic Development in an Age of Remote Work

October 20, 2021

10:30AM - 11:00AM

The last year has seen unprecedented change in how people live and work. While historical economic development approaches have focused heavily on the attraction of businesses, we are recognizing that white-collar workers will increasingly work remotely. For our communities to grow and thrive, they will need to attract highly mobile workers who can choose to live anywhere in the world. City building for individual talent attraction and retention will become an increasingly important economic development imperative.
 
At the same time, communities in Ontario and across the world are coming to terms with the urgency of climate change, which is a global problem with local causes and local solutions. Responding to climate change will require substantially transforming our communities to be energy efficient and low carbon over the next decade and beyond to reach aggressive 2030 and 2050 emissions reduction targets. These two concurrent challenges give our communities an opportunity to go beyond “Building Back Better” as we plan our economic recovery. There is enormous job creation potential for retrofitting our buildings and our communities to transition off of fossil fuels. But the even bigger economic development potential is building the highly desirable, energy-efficient communities where people can lead fulfilling, robust lives while meeting their daily needs close to home.
 
The Region of Waterloo’s Climate Change Policy Direction Paper (Jan 2021) in support of the Region’s official plan review process identified “Desired Futures” for “How We Move,” “How We Live and Work,” and “How we Build.” Using the lenses of energy and resilience, it proposed a series of “Big Moves” and identified specific policy directions that align with the TransformWR (ClimateActionWR, 2021) community climate change mitigation strategy.

Speakers