Madam Chair, I am pleased to be with you and members of the committee to discuss the measures Public Services and Procurement Canada, or PSPC, has in place to manage climate change risks. I am joined by Veronica Silva, director general of Technical Services in our Real Property Services.
Our department acts as the government's central purchasing agent, linguistic authority, and accountant on behalf of government departments. It also manages its real property portfolio and offers property management services to other departments. As such, climate change adaptation is recognized as a key consideration to ensure our continued ability to deliver programs and services to the Government of Canada and Canadians.
One of our core responsibilities is property and infrastructure as we manage our federal buildings nationally. We recognize that climate change is having impacts on our assets that are felt in areas such as eroding shorelines or loss of permafrost.
As we undertake construction or restoration projects, Public Services and Procurement Canada is taking into account changing climate, vulnerability, and adaptation measures. The department has taken initial steps to address climate change risks. For example, we are working to improve the resiliency of our assets by incorporating new data and research into our building designs to address anticipated changes to climate conditions, and we're conducting assessments of possible vulnerabilities for our facilities and accounting for risks such as rising sea levels.
Climate change is one of the drivers of the “critical systems emergencies” key risk noted in the departmental plan that was tabled in Parliament in March 2017.
In response to this audit, we will undertake a department-wide climate change risk assessment that will better inform integrated risk management at the corporate level. It will also inform future program and operation activities within our branches and regions.
We will collaborate with other departments to develop a common climate forecast model. We will also identify and implement adaptation measures for selected assets or operations based on that climate forecast model.
Our department agreed to the commissioner's recommendation and we will identify, assess, prioritize, and address climate change risks as they relate to the department's area of responsibility. Those will be incorporated more systematically in corporate risk management practices and documents. We are confident that this work will support our progress in that direction.
Thank you.