The Whitehorse Climate Change Adaptation Project, or WhiteCAP, a local climate change adaptation report drafted by the Northern Climate ExChange, was presented to the mayor and members of city council Tuesday afternoon.

The project is the second of three community adaptation reports, the first drafted for Dawson City last year with the third scheduled for Mayo.

It's an assessment of the anticipated effects of climate change on the community of Whitehorse and some recommended strategies the city can use to address them.

"The idea is to look at the community, not just the city but also all groups within the community to identify how climate change is coming right now, what we anticipate coming in the future and how we can respond to both the good sides and the bad sides as well,” said John Streicker, the project's coordinator.

The $200,000 project, led by Northern Climate ExChange at the Yukon Research Centre, began in 2009 with funding from the Canada Northern Strategy Trust. The project also consulted a local advisory committee, with participation from the City of Whitehorse, Government of Yukon, Ta'an Kwäch'än Council, Kwanlin Dün First Nation and the Yukon Conservation Society.

Research was compiled using both scientific projections and local historical data.

"We looked backwards to see historically, how the community has been able to cope with stresses in terms of climate and generally just hunting back through old newspapers to get a historical look,” said Streicker. "We then did a lot of community consultation... we don't want to assume that the city will stay static in the coming decades.

So we studied demographic trends within the territory as well. That's where we are going. We put ourselves in the future and try to look backwards,” he said.

The report states that the local climate has warmed by about two degrees over the past 50 years and more change is expected. Potential impacts include predicted increase of "frost free” days rising from 150 to about 170 per year as well as a precipitation increase of between 14 and 22per cent by 2050 and increased variability, which could lead to flooding and a more risk of forest fires, said Streicker.

Invasive species, such as regional beetles are also expected to be a future concern.

Along with the climatic changes, Whitehorse is also expecting to grow, perhaps as much as 50per cent in the next 40 years, the report concludes.

According to the report, the answer to the problem is community preparedness, both among city planners and regular citizens.

"There is always uncertainty around climate. On the other hand if you don't consider what you anticipate you may not be well prepared,” said Streicker. "City planners have to be aware of that and they have to adjust their ongoing maintenance and observation practices to suit that.

"And yes, they are already doing it, we don't mean to be alarmist, I don't think that means we should head for the hills,” said Streicker. "On the other hand if you don't consider what you anticipate you may not be well prepared.”

The report does outline some positive outcomes to regional climate change, though stressing they are far outweighed by potentially negative consequences. Aside from warmer weather, the increase in temperature will also open up potential opportunities in agriculture and food production, said Streicker.

The plan recommends "mainstreaming” climate change figures into municipal planning.

"When we talk to planning and infrastructure groups, the emergency response group, any of these groups which already exist, we think a good choice would be to set up some meetings with them to discuss the details of the change we anticipate so they can incorporate that into their thinking. It's smart to allocate a modest amount of time and resource to it,” said Streicker.

Some suggested adaptations include redeveloping snow removal strategies in light of increased snowfall, ensuring critical buildings have back-up systems for power and lighting, creating a strategy for harvesting salvage wood, assessing storm drainage capabilities and investigating new ways to grow and store food locally. Another suggestion is the creation of an agricultural area south of the city, which would increase food production and act as a natural break in case of forest fires.

City manager Dennis Shewfelt pointed out after yesterday's meeting that the region is outside of municipal jurisdiction and is the responsibility of the territorial government.

In light of cross-jurisdictional issues like these, WhiteCAP suggests the municipality build a closer relationship with organizations such as the territorial government, Yukon Energy and Yukon College to help address regional environmental concerns.

The mayor is enthusiastic about that recommendation and says she supports many of the project's recommendations.

"We are passed the place where we can work in isolation,” she said. "We need to have the different levels of government working with each other. These decisions impact all of us, so to me, their involvement is the most important thing,” she said.

"I like the plan, it's really an overview of what we might expect as the years roll ahead, like the impacts of climate change here and some of the things we can do. I think it's important to have something put together like this in a document, it's really is a good foundation to work from.”

In fact, she says that many of the recommendations are already being considered by council.

"If you look through the document, things like conservation is one we have been talking about with the city. The Yukon River runs right by our front door, it costs money to treat the water and to transport the water to get it to our houses. So we feel that if we can lessen the amount of water used, then of course it will bring costs down. That's just one example of one of the very obvious pieces in here,” said the mayor.

Though there will be few immediate changes as a result of this study, the mayor says many of the recommendations, including addressing potential fire hazards as well as the development of new infrastructure are already being considered by the municipal government.

Though it is far from resulting in any kind of municipal policy, Streicker is enthusiastic about yesterday's reception and hopes the document will help influence future city planning decisions.

"It was never written as a city plan per se,” he said. "But we hope it doesn't become something on a shelf for you or for us.”

The document will be presented in an upcoming city council meeting.