Everyone Needs to be Involved

Green Communities Canada has been leading green infrastructure programs for over 15 years, including award-winning programs like RAIN Community Solutions and Depave Paradise. GCC’s green infrastructure programming addresses key risks and builds local resilience to assist cities to adapt and mitigate impacts of changing climate.

In 2021 GCC launched the Living Cities Canada program with the goal of supporting policy change in cities across the country to advance green infrastructure. All of GCC’s experience and legacy of award-winning green infrastructure programs is consolidated into Living Cities Canada. This ambitious program provides a cohesive vision, opportunities, and support for organizations to strategically engage and advance policy and action-based green infrastructure projects in their communities.

Between 2021 and 2023, Green Communities Canada partnered with local environmental organizations (ENGOs) in five communities across Canada to pilot a process for building local Living Cities Policy Pathways.

A significant weather event occurred from June 25 to July 1, 2021, resulting in record-breaking temperatures and over 600 heat-related deaths. This is the deadliest weather event in Canadian history, highlighting the impacts of climate change and the need to mobilize solutions.

In 2022 GCC launched our Living Cities Canada Fund. This fund supports organizations to build public support for green infrastructure, develop their own localized policy pathways, and expand on-the-ground local action projects.

Launched in 2022, GCC’s Mini Forest Program provides communities with the skills, knowledge, and tools they need to plant dense native tree communities in small urban plots.

In 2022, together with the University of Toronto, we published the Pathways to Living Cities. This framework helps practitioners advance equitable, abundant, and thriving green infrastructure in cities across Canada. It continues to be the foundation of the Living Cities Canada programming today.

GCC releases our 2023 Living Cities Canada Fund Impact report. The report demonstrates the remarkable growth of the fund’s impact in communities across Canada in only one year.

In July 2024, a major rainfall event occurred in the Greater Toronto Area. Tens of thousands of people lost power and flooding incapacitated much of downtown Toronto.

GCC releases our 2024 Living Cities Canada Fund Impact report. The report demonstrates the exponential growth of the fund’s impact in communities across Canada over just a few years.

GCC convenes a panel of experts and individuals directly involved with green infrastructure projects in communities across Canada to discuss the growing mini forest movement across Canada.

In partnership with the University of British Columbia, GCC publishes a report sharing findings on best practices, impacts, and levers to accelerating the adoption of mini forests in communities across Canada

GCC partners with the Centre d’écologie urbaine to launch a bilingual training program that supports 8-10 municipalities, ENGOs, and Indigenous communities to develop local policy pathways that advance green infrastructure using GCC’s Living Cities Policy Framework and online training program.