YELLOWKNIFE - With mounting evidence that our frozen climate is changing, the City of Yellowknife is beginning to put in measures to combat negatives related to these changes.

Mark Henry, energy co-ordinator for the city, said administration and council members are attending workshops on climate change in hopes of curtailing its negative effects on the city.

Mark Henry, who is co-ordinating the city's adaption to climate change plan, holds some climate change literature outside of City Hall Wednesday afternoon. - Peter Crnogorac/NNSL photo

"We are at the infancy stage right now," he said. "We are learning about the changes and how they can affect us."

Henry said the city used $70,000 from the federal government's fuel funding program to hire Calgary-based consultant Jake Pryor to do climate modelling for the city.

"So far he has done models for precipitation and for temperature change," Henry said.

Mayor Gord Van Tighem said the city will use the modelling information for long-term planning to deal with complications that may arise, such as damage to water and sewage infrastructure.

Van Tighem said the climate change issue is gaining media attention, and Maclean's recently interviewed him on the subject for an upcoming article.

"They were asking about the amount of snow we recently had and the amount of rain," he said. "Extra rain can affect sewage and other infrastructure and we want to learn how we should plan to stay away from some major problems this can cause."

Henry said Yellowknife has one advantage over most Northern communities when it comes to the rising temperatures scientists have been recording in the North for the past 30 years.

"Most places in the North have infrastructure built on the permafrost," he said. "And, as the temperatures rise, this will cause serious issues for them. But we're lucky because Yellowknife is built on rock."

City administration and council have been to one of the three workshops so far.