CityTalk/Canada

COVID Signpost 200 Days: How Should Our Cities Prepare for Winter?

Recent Discussion

Joining our guest host Catherine Craig-St-Louis of CUI and Rues Principales for our second series of COVID Signpost, 200 Days: How Should Our Cities Prepare for Winter? – are Olivier Legault, Project Manager at Rues principales and Co-founder, Winterlab; Isla Tanaka, Wintercity Planner at the City of Edmonton; Sheena Jardine-Olade, CoFounder of Night Lab; and Rami Bebawi, CoFounder and Partner at KANVA.

5 Key
Takeaways

A roundup of the most compelling ideas, themes and quotes from this candid conversation

1. Winter Planning Requires a Systems Thinking Approach

Edmonton has become a global exemplar in terms of planning for winter cities. Isla Tanaka, Winter City Planner for the City of Edmonton, evokes the imagery of an iceberg. There are only a few visible items at the top, such as events and festivals, but effective winter planning requires consideration of the factors that lie under the surface including policies, zoning by-laws, maintenance and operating procedures, urban design, and infrastructure. Through this approach, the City has developed its renown community-led Winter City Strategy.

2. Planning for the Night

Sheena Jardine-Olade, as part of Night Lab, works to identify opportunities to foster a thriving nighttime economy (NTE). Planners focus on what Sheena calls the “festive night” made up of highly visible main street businesses such as restaurants, pubs, nightclubs, theatres and sports arenas. But other NTE activities require equal consideration, such as gig, late night office, factory and essential service work. Cities need to be planned on a twenty-four-hour basis to improve safety, accessibility and inclusion for all peoples at all times of the day.

3. Public Spaces are for More than Consumption

Rami Bebawi, of the architectural firm KANVA, calls on planners to think beyond winter economic activity and reformulate our relationship with nature. We should be animating our public spaces during the winter for purposes beyond mere consumption. There must be a shift away from entertainment for entertainment’s sake. According to Rami, places can be forums for exchange, discussion, ideas, and fun. Remi says there is a delicate balance between prescribed activity and opportunities for people to be creative.

4. Neighbourhood Scale

Olivier Legault, of the Laboratoire de l’Hiver (Winter Lab), promotes the idea of the proximity-based winter. Sheena brings up the idea of the 15-minute city, a planning movement to provide all the services an individual may need within walking distance of home. These approaches are hyperlocal and focus on small scale-interventions. Animating at this scale involves opportunities for residents and businesses to foster connections and take ownership of their neighbourhood spaces.

5. Shifting Perceptions on Winter

There needs to be a cultural shift in Canadian cities to encourage people to spend more time outdoors in the cold. The winter season is not one monolithic block of the year. There are ample opportunities throughout the season to enjoy the outdoors comfortably. Olivier and Isla speak of communication strategies that encourage adults to “rediscover their inner child” by eliciting emotional memories of childhood winters spent outside. The community-based task force behind Edmonton’s Winter City Strategy asked Edmontonians, “what would make you fall in love with winter in Edmonton?”

Additional Reading and Resources

Winter City Edmonton

Four Pillars of Edmonton’s Winter City Strategy

Edmonton’s Winter Design Guidelines

CityLab’s How to Make the Most of COVID Winter

Winter Lab

Night Lab

Full Audience
Chatroom Transcript

Note to reader: Chat comments have been edited for ease of readability. The text has not been edited for spelling or grammar. For questions or concerns, please contact events@canurb.org with “Chat Comments” in the subject lin

From Canadian Urban Institute: You can find transcripts and recordings of today’s and all our webinars at https://canurb.org/citytalk

00:33:01             Lisa Cavicchia:   Interpreter function

You will see the option to use the interpreter service at the bottom of your screen. If you want to hear an English translation of what you’re hearing in French, select English. If you want to hear a French translation of what you’re hearing in English, select French.

If you lose sound/connection, please re-select the language translation you want to listen to. You can record the session yourself to capture the language you are listening to. The official recording will capture the conversation as it exists without translation.

L’interpétation simultanée

Vous avez l’option d’utiliser le service d’interprétation au bas de votre écran. Si vous voulez la traduction anglaise de ce que vous entendez en français, sélectionnez “English” ou “anglais”. Si vous voulez la traduction française de ce que vous entendez en anglais, sélectionnez “French” ou “français”.

Si vous perdez le son ou votre connexion, veuillez sélectionner de nouveau la langue que vous voulez entendre. Vous pouvez enregistrer l

00:33:40             Lisa Cavicchia: CUI is very proud of our COVID Signpost 200 Days report! You can read it at https://covidsignpost.ca/

L’institut urbain du Canada est très fier de notre rapport de “COVID Signpost: 200 Days”! Vous pouvez l’accéder à https://fr.covidsignpost.ca/ (la version française à venir plus tard dans la semaine)

 

00:34:17             Lisa Cavicchia:   L’interpétation simultanée

Vous avez l’option d’utiliser le service d’interprétation au bas de votre écran. Si vous voulez la traduction anglaise de ce que vous entendez en français, sélectionnez “English” ou “anglais”. Si vous voulez la traduction française de ce que vous entendez en anglais, sélectionnez “French” ou “français”.

Si vous perdez le son ou votre connexion, veuillez sélectionner de nouveau la langue que vous voulez entendre. Vous pouvez enregistrer la session vous-même pour enregistrez-le dans la langue que vous entendez. L’enregistrement officiel sera sans traduction.

 

00:34:29             Lisa Cavicchia:   Interpreter function

You will see the option to use the interpreter service at the bottom of your screen. If you want to hear an English translation of what you’re hearing in French, select English. If you want to hear a French translation of what you’re hearing in English, select French.

If you lose sound/connection, please re-select the language translation you want to listen to. You can record the session yourself to capture the language you are listening to. The official recording will capture the conversation as it exists without translation.

 

00:36:18             Lisa Cavicchia:   Interpreter function

You will see the option to use the interpreter service at the bottom of your screen. If you want to hear an English translation of what you’re hearing in French, select English. If you want to hear a French translation of what you’re hearing in English, select French.

If you lose sound/connection, please re-select the language translation you want to listen to. You can record the session yourself to capture the language you are listening to. The official recording will capture the conversation as it exists without translation.

00:36:26             Lisa Cavicchia:   Interpreter function

You will see the option to use the interpreter service at the bottom of your screen. If you want to hear an English translation of what you’re hearing in French, select English. If you want to hear a French translation of what you’re hearing in English, select French.

If you lose sound/connection, please re-select the language translation you want to listen to. You can record the session yourself to capture the language you are listening to. The official recording will capture the conversation as it exists without translation.

 

00:39:34             Lindsay Allman: Thank you for the Indigenous acknowledgement Catherine as today is Orange Shirt Day to remember the harm that residential schools inflicted on Indigenous communities!

00:39:40             Lisa Cavicchia:   Our panelists:

00:39:41             Lisa Cavicchia:   Catherine Craig-St-Louis

linkedin.com/in/catherine-craig-st-louis

Olivier Legault

https://www.facebook.com/labhiver

Isla Tanaka

https://www.linkedin.com/in/isla-jackson-tanaka-121875105/

Email: isla.tanaka@edmonton.ca

Sheena Jardine-Olade

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sjardineolade/?originalSubdomain=ca

@nightlab_ca

 

Rami Bebawi

https://www.linkedin.com/in/rami-bebawi-6b847639/

@_Kanva

 

00:40:24             Lisa Cavicchia:   Reminding attendees to please change your chat settings to “all panelists and attendees” so everyone can see your comments.

Un petit rappel aux participants: S’il vous plait, changez vos réglages de chat à “Tous les conférenciers et les panélistes” (All panelists and attendees) pour que tout le monde puisse lire vos commentaires.

 

00:40:37             Charles Cooper: Thank you for the links.

00:40:49             Lisa Cavicchia:   We love your comments and questions in the chat! Share them with everyone by changing your chat settings to “all panelists and attendees”. Thanks!

Nous aimons vos commentaires et vos questions dans le chat! Partagez-les avec tous en changeant vos réglages de chat à “Tous les conférenciers et les panélistes” (All panelists and attendees).

 

00:42:11             Lisa Cavicchia:   Info on the four pillars: https://www.edmonton.ca/city_government/initiatives_innovation/wintercity-strategy.aspx

00:43:25             Lisa Cavicchia:   Design guidelines: https://www.edmonton.ca/city_government/initiatives_innovation/winter-design-guidelines.aspx

00:44:03             Lindsay Vanstone:          Bonjour hi from Edmonton!

00:47:10             Lisa Cavicchia:   Great article on winter that highlights Edmonton & Montreal examples: https://www-bloomberg-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.bloomberg.com/amp/news/articles/2020-09-11/how-to-prepare-for-a-coronavirus-winter

00:48:23             Keren Tang:       Hello too from Treaty 6 like Lindsay and Isla! Wintercity is such an important work, especially this year, anxiety is clearly rising with the 2nd wave and the encroaching winter (winter is pretty much here in Edmonton by Halloween). It’s a SHAME that the City cut this work; no doubt it will be carried on in the community, as people figure out ways to adapt. (Hi Isla!)

00:49:18             Purshottama Reddy:      The Winter Strategy is quite interesting – I have not heard/thought of this before. This is quite important in a country like Canada where the winter months are in the majority in terms of the seasons in the annual calendar. I am assuming that aspects relating to the COVID-19 pandemic is included in the Winter Strategy.

00:51:24             Lindsay Vanstone:          Yes Keren, I’ve heard the city is getting rid of the added pedestrian lanes because of the cost to keep them clear in the winter. Not sure how that jives with winter options during covid. As you said, it’ll be up to the community!

00:56:28             Aimée González Ferriol: For Sheena: How energy consumption and energy efficiency criteria are incorporated into the promotion of the night-life? Thanks!

00:59:08             Catherine Soplet:            Catherine Soplet here from Mississauga. soplet@sympatico.ca

@Rami thank you for reminding us of the need to reconnect with nature.

I join with enviro research charity ACER Canada (www.acer-acre.ca) to prepare for winter by creating outdoor, on-line and remote volunteer activities for students – to mulch, measure and calculate carbon capture of municipal trees.

00:59:16             Charles Cooper: Thank you for recognizing that there are different scales for Main Street… That distinction seems to be lost in many discussions.

00:59:58             Lisa Cavicchia:   Find more info on lab hiver: https://www.facebook.com/labhiver

 

01:00:18             Sue Holdsworth:             Edmonton’s WinterCity Strategy was developed long before COVID. We could never have imagined how important it would be this winter in our pandemic context. For sure, the work is especially relevant now. There are a tonne of great resources that other cities and communities can borrow on www.wintercityedmonton.ca

 

01:08:37             Kristy Kilbourne:             Excellent ideas and suggestions. Places like Edmonton, Winnipeg and Montreal are quite cold in winter/mostly a dry cold. Do the panelists have any suggestions for places in Canada like southern Ontario that aren’t as cold and are and less “pleasant” in winter (slush/wet), unpredictable snow accumulation, lots of thaw/melt, etc.

01:09:31             Maria Bravo:     Merci a vous tous. Dans ce qui concerne aux activités, est -il possible pour les municipalités de continuer avec les activités organisés à l’extérieur par les municipalités et les adapter pour l’hiver?

01:09:37             Canadian Urban Institute:           Can you change your chat settings? Your link only went to panelists. Thanks!

Pouvez-vous changer vos paramètres de chat? Votre lien a été envoyé seulement à les panélistes. Merci!

 

01:10:42             Howard Lawrence:         Winter activities at the “block” and Neighbourhood scale (1000 households) are very important and all the more with COVID considerations. These activities are driven by residents and beyond recreation they create supportive neighbourly connections.

01:11:24             Kathy Poulin:     Fire pits/feux extérieurs dans les places publiques: comment conjuguer cette tradition avec le respect de la qualité de l’air et de la pollution? Public outdoor fires are criticized by a lot of citizen as a source of air pollution. How do you respond to that?

01:11:37             Fiona McGill:     Speaking of winter city maintenance (thanks Isla)…I am a grad student researching how to make winter sidewalks safe and accessible for all in Edmonton. I am conducting interviews with stakeholders from winter cities to learn how they are designing and maintaining pedestrian infrastructure through the winter. There is no community that I’m not interested in learning about, so if you have insights into how snow and ice control is happening in your community, please email me at fmcgill@ualberta.ca

01:11:39             Kate Gunn:         greetings from #yegwinter Edmonton ! Great discussion. Winter is such an important issue in 2020 more than ever- a public health, vibrancy and economic issue all at once!

01:11:44             Lindsay Allman: I’m wondering how municipalities other than the big cities can help finance additional lighting, heating etc. as many businesses, who are already struggling due to COVID, are unable to afford this. Are budgets simply re-aligned to provide this support? Are there grants somewhere? Do the power companies have any sort of partnerships involved to help finance events?

01:11:50             Lisa Cavicchia:   You can find transcripts and recordings of today’s and all our webinars at https://www.canurb.org/citytalk

Les transcripts et enregistrements de cette session et de toutes nos webinares sont disponibles à https://canurb.org/fr/citytalk-canada/

 

 

01:13:43             Keren Tang:       Wintercity Strategy (not just a strategy) also provided micrograms for neighbours to activate their blocks and parks at the block level, to the point that many have raised here about very local winter activities. I do hope someone can demonstrate this kind of leadership in supporting neighbourhoods. Finances are the bottomline these days where it’s tight everywhere

01:13:51             Keren Tang:       *microgrants

01:15:08             Catherine Soplet:            Residents are sometimes challenged by municipal by-laws to be able to ‘take back’ the public space – what can be done to open the communication pipeline with municipal councillors who can open doors and foster civic engagements?

In Mississauga, there is an umbrella MIRANET network of Mississauga Residents’ Associations – but not all wards are represented.

Even in Toronto, there are many challenges.

Sometimes where BIA Business Improvement Associations overlap and interconnect with residents’ associations, momentum can build for civic, social and cultural ownership in public space.

01:15:26             Zhixi Zhuang:     When it comes to municipalities’ role in promoting winter cities, what are the important policy changes (temporary or permanent) you would recommend?

01:16:21             Minaz Asani-Kanji:          Anyone have any ideas for winter programming in underserved communities where communities have very little resources or funding and don’t generally participate in outdoor winter programming?

01:19:09             Keren Tang:       We’re excited to see the launch of a project in Regent Park, Toronto very soon, in partnership with the residents to co-design a series of starter kits for individual households, multiple households, or even an apartment building. Many of which are designed with winter in mind

01:21:16             Minaz Asani-Kanji:          Karen, could you share who in Regent Park is leading this project or who’s involved? Thanks

01:21:25             Maria Bravo:     Le potenciel d’un abribus ou des espaces dans les arrets d’autobus en milieu urbain pourrait etre étudié. Par exmple pour les nouveaux arrivants ou migrants dans une ville, c’est le premier contact avec les installations et les services.

01:21:30             Keren Tang:       Centre for Social Innovation – Minaz

01:22:06             Sophie Rioux-Hébert:     les files d’attente pour entrer dans les commerces vont continuer à empiéter sur les trottoirs cet hiver, comment assure-t-on l’accessibilité aux trottoirs, surtout aux gens à mobilité réduite, s’ils sont complètement obstrués par les files d’attente? Il faut maintenir des voies piétonnes plus larges

 

01:22:16             Lisa Cavicchia:   CUI is very proud of our COVID Signpost 200 Days report! You can read it at https://covidsignpost.ca/

L’institut urbain du Canada est très fier de notre rapport de “COVID Signpost: 200 Days”! Vous pouvez l’accéder à https://fr.covidsignpost.ca/ (la version française à venir plus tard dans la semaine)

 

01:22:17             Zhixi Zhuang:     How do we engage people of different ages and ethnocultural backgrounds? Kids and youth tend to embrace the winter seasons a lot. Cultural groups have diverse perspectives on using public spaces in winter times as well.

01:22:29             Lisa Cavicchia:   What did you think of today’s conversation? Help us improve our programming with a short post-webinar survey – https://bit.ly/33dxMd1 .

Qu’est-ce que vous avez pensé de cette session? Aidez-nous d’améliorer notre plate-form en remplissant cette etite sondage (disponible seulement en anglais): https://bit.ly/33dxMd1

 

01:22:36             Howard Lawrence:         The Block of 20 to 30 households hold amazing potential for inclusion. Let the children lead us. String lights in the back alley:)

01:22:42             Minaz Asani-Kanji:          Thanks Karen. We (Park People) works with Friends of Regent Park who do winter programming, so will check in with them.

01:22:53             Keren Tang:       Please do Minaz!!

01:23:00             Lisa Cavicchia:   If you like CityTalk and the Canadian Urban Institute’s other city building initiatives, consider donating at www.canurb.org/donate .

Pour appuyer CityTalk et les autres initiatives de l’Institut urbain du Canada, vous pouvez faire un don à https://canurb.org/fr/donate/

01:25:58             Lisa Cavicchia:   CUI extends a big thank you to our moderator Catherine Craig-St-Louis and our entire panel for an exceptional discussion today. Thank you to our attendees too for your keen attention and participation.

L’IUC donne un gros merci à notre animatrice, Catherine Craig-St-Louis et notre panel pour une discussion expectionnelle aujourd’hui. Merci à nos participants pour votre attention et votre participation.

Catherine Craig-St-Louis

linkedin.com/in/catherine-craig-st-louis

Olivier Legault

https://www.facebook.com/labhiver

Isla Tanaka

https://www.linkedin.com/in/isla-jackson-tanaka-121875105/

Email: isla.tanaka@edmonton.ca

Sheena Jardine-Olade

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sjardineolade/?originalSubdomain=ca

@nightlab_ca

Rami Bebawi

https://www.linkedin.com/in/rami-bebawi-6b847639/

@_Kanva

 

01:25:58             Catherine Soplet:            Hi, Minaz – Alice at ACER got some great news today for fall activities with TDSB ECO schools

01:27:00             Minaz Asani-Kanji:          Pour creuser la réflexion sur les perceptions de la ville vécue en hiver! Le vélo d’hiver: à Montréal: expérience vécue, perçue et imaginée: http://espace.inrs.ca/id/eprint/8443/

01:27:28             Minaz Asani-Kanji:          That’s incredible Catherine. Will connect with her. Thanks for letting me know.

01:28:00             Lisa Cavicchia:   You can find transcripts and recordings of today’s and all our webinars at https://www.canurb.org/citytalk

Les transcripts et enregistrements de cette session et de toutes nos webinares sont disponibles à https://canurb.org/fr/citytalk-canada/

 

01:28:57             Charles Cooper:

Nous avons vu cet été que les trottoirs peuvent être élargis pour permettre aux activités de se dérouler au bord de la rue, (offrant un chemin clair pour la mobilité sur le trottoir), mais il semble que dans de nombreux endroits, ceux-ci seront enlevés pendant l’hiver, de sorte que la mobilité sera un problème cet hiver.

01:29:11             Maria Bravo:     Merci, thank you all!

01:29:31             Catherine Soplet:            Prenez soigns!

I echo importance of community seeing itself in communications. In an October community tree planting event for Peel Living building, a photo of a mom and her two kids, in PPE gloves works better than a slick photo of teens only in designed clothese. have a look –

01:30:18             Sophie Rioux-Hébert:     Merci, très intéressant!

01:30:50             Sue Holdsworth:             Keep up the great work, everyone!

01:31:11             Keren Tang:       Hear hear

01:31:19             Aimée González Ferriol: Thank you! Great discussion!

01:31:28             Robert Pajot:     Merci!

01:31:35             Kate Gunn:         Thanks Merci to all for a great convo!

01:31:47             Abdul Rashid Athar:       Thank you very much the Panelists for a great insight