Community resilience up for discussion at Centre for North roundtable in Iqaluit

Northern communities and their need for resiliency will be the topic of conversation at an upcoming Centre for the North discussion May 30 and June 1 in Iqaluit.

The Conference Board of Canada’s Centre for the North roundtable, a group that produces research and discusses northern Canadian issues, wants to get people talking about resiliency, that is, community adaptability and security in northern Canadian communities.

The goal is to find ways to help make communities more able to deal with risks and recover from emergency situations.

“Resilient communities are effective at drawing on outside assistance and guidance if needed, but are not dependent on external support,” said Anja Jeffrey, director of the Centre for the North in a May 28 news release.

The Centre’s report, Getting It Right: Assessing and Building Resilience in Canada’s North, released this past week, says there’s a need for community leaders, emergency responders, and businesses need to assess their security to come up with plans that are inclusive, flexible and adaptive.

The Centre will “help to establish and implement strategies, policies and practices to transform that vision into a reality,” said the news release.

You can download the report on assessing and building resilience here.