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Canadian cities need to take action to prepare for climate change impacts. It’s a smart investment. It’s good urban policy. And, perhaps less obviously, it’s strategic for business development.

“As the impacts of climate change become more significant, cities’ resilience will become a factor of competitive advantage,” Cynthia McHale from Ceres, a non-profit that promotes sustainability in the private sector, recently told the Los Angeles Times, commenting on the city of Phoenix’s efforts to build climate resilience.

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Resilience is a brandable, distinguishing feature of cities. For cities that want to display their innovative culture, as much as cultivating craft breweries and high-tech start-ups, they need to demonstrate their commitment to preparing for potential climate shocks.

Climate change doesn’t care if we believe in it; climate change doesn’t care if we prepare for it — but investors do. Among the absolute key criteria that investors now look for (when deciding where to site a new factory, for example) are: quality of the labour force, quality of the infrastructure and the resilience of that infrastructure.