Province making progress on climate change resilience, new targets set

Saskatchewan continues to build resilience to the effects of climate change, according to the provincial government, and new targets are being introduced in 2022.

The province’s 2022 Resilience Report includes a measurement framework to gauge the government’s progress on various initiatives. According to Environment Minister Dana Skoropad, the report “demonstrates the strong progress we are making in building resilience to climate change in our province.”

The government’s climate plan contains 22 measures to build resilience, 18 of which were in good standing in the latest report. The remaining four measures were rated as “fair,” the government noted, and none was given a status of “poor.”

After eight previous target dates were met, new goals were set for several resilience measures, including soil protection in the forestry industry, distribution of seedlings from SaskPower’s Shand Greenhouse, sustainable timber harvest utilization, and Saskatchewan’s Healthy Beach Program.

In the report, Skoropad also highlighted new resilience initiatives from SaskPower and decreasing greenhouse gas emissions from the upstream oil industry.

“Four years of reporting on the Climate Resilience Framework have enabled Saskatchewan to access, improve and continue to strengthen resilience in the province,” Skoropad wrote in the report.