The Toronto 2015 Pan and Parapan American Games Experience

'This report is a description of the Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC, formerly Environment Canada) Project Team’s experiences in their support to the Toronto 2015 Pan and Parapan American Games (hereafter, the Games). Reflecting on these experiences allows us to synthesize lessons for the improvement of Canadian meteorological services in ways that can benefit future projects and service delivery in general. ECCC’s Meteorological Service of Canada (MSC) is already proud of its accomplishments and world-class services. The Games allowed the MSC to harness those world-class services, sharpen the focus on a relatively small region of Canada, and increase the temporal and spatial resolution of observations in that small region to augment meteorological services provided for the Games. ECCC derives its mandate from the Department of the Environment Act, which requires implementing environmental legislation, policies and programs to protect, maintain and enhance the quality of the natural environment. It also requires that Canadians are provided with the information they need to make informed decisions to protect their health, safety and security, and economic prosperity in the face of changing weather and environmental conditions. Flowing naturally from the Department’s mandate, during the creation of the Treasury Board Submission, ECCC had to capture its mission and contributions to the Games. This mission was to provide essential services for enhanced weather monitoring, alerting, and forecasting, for local-level preparedness activities, and to support environmental assessments of projects relating to the Games'--Executive summary, p. xiii.