January 12, 1999
To:Strategic Policies and Priorities Committee
From:Environmental Task Force
Subject:Toxics/Pollution Prevention, Land and Air/Climate Change Actions
Purpose:
The purpose of this report is to propose actions that can be taken to implement important ideas
that were identified by participants of three workshops held by the Environmental Task Force
in early September, 1998.
Source of Funds:
There are no immediate funding implications arising from the recommendations in this report.
Recommendations
(1)That the Chief Administrative Officer and the Commissioner of Works and Emergency
Services, as co-chairs of the Toronto Inter-departmental Environmental (TIE) Team, be
requested to coordinate responses to the actions listed below and described in this report and
provide a monthly status chart to the Environmental Task Force commencing in January,
1999.
(2)That the Commissioner of Finance submit the Environmentally Responsible Purchasing
Policy that is being prepared to City Council as soon as possible and submit it to the
Environmental Task Force for information en route to Standing Committee.
(3)That the Medical Officer of Health be advised that the Environmental Task Force supports
the establishment of a Toronto-based Children's Environmental Health Network that will
gather and disseminate information on protecting children from environmental risks to their
health.
(4)That the Commissioner of Works and Emergency Services report to the Environmental
Task Force on actions that are currently being taken to reduce the release of household
hazardous waste into the environment and suggestions for actions that could be taken by the
Environmental Task Force or City Council.
(5)That the City of Toronto's new seat of government have, as a pilot project, a drop-off spot
in a visible location for disposal of batteries used by City employees.
(6)That the Commissioner of Works and Emergency Services prepare a report regarding the
setting-up of hazardous waste drop-off sites for the public in places such as fire stations.
(7)That the Chief Administrative Officer and the Commissioner of Works and Emergency
Services, as co-chairs of the Toronto Inter-departmental Environmental (TIE) Team, be
requested to prepare a plan for disposal of pesticides whose use will be eliminated.
(8)That City Council endorse a program to encourage and recognize employee suggestions
that bring environmental, social and financial benefits to the City's operations and request the
Chief Administrative Officer and the Commissioner of Corporate Services to bring forward a
report on such a program.
(9)That the Chief Administrative Officer and the Commissioner of Corporate Services report
on how the City could achieve reductions in emissions from mobile and stationary diesel
sources owned by the City and its Agencies, Boards and Commissions which are not included
in the Provincial 'Drive Clean' Program.
(10)That the Chief Administrative Officer and the Commissioner of Works and Emergency
Services, as co-chairs of the Toronto Inter-departmental Environment (TIE) Team, be
requested to report on how reports to City Council could include carbon dioxide accounting
information.
(11)That City Council request the Toronto Licencing Commission to ensure that fuel burning
vehicles licensed by the Commission meet Provincial emission control specifications and that
there is a mechanism for recognizing and encouraging compliance with provincial emission
control specifications.
(12)That City Council indicate its support for efforts to make employer provided transit
passes tax-exempt and its intention, as an employer, to review offering the transit pass as an
employee benefit.
Council Reference/Background/History:
The Environmental Task Force was established by City Council at its meeting on March 4, 5
and 6. One of the primary roles of the Task Force is to bring stakeholders together to develop
an Environmental Plan for the City. This work is underway and the Task Force will be
reporting to the Strategic Policies and Priorities Committee in the fall of 1999. The terms of
reference also indicate that the Task Force will identify urgent environmental initiatives/short
term actions for consideration by City Council. This report identifies a series of actions that
can be taken in the areas of toxics/pollution prevention, land and air/climate change. A report
on proposed actions in the areas of sustainable energy, greenspace/nature and water has
already been submitted to Strategic Policies and Priorities Committee for consideration.
The actions identified in this report are part of a group of actions that were identified through
the stakeholder consultation process described below and were considered by the
Environmental Task Force at its meetings between October 1998 and January 1999. The
Environmental Task Force recognizes that many of the actions are directed at City staff and
acknowledges that it may be difficult for City staff to undertake all of these proposed actions
simultaneously or in the short term, particularly given the organizational changes arising from
amalgamation. However, the actions identified in this report will benefit the environment, and
most can be done relatively easily and build upon actions that were underway in former parts
of the new City. In consulting with program staff about the proposed actions, it was
determined that, in many cases, the proposed actions were consistent with directions already
being taken, were planned to be undertaken at some time in the future or were recognized as
actions that should be given priority.
Comments and/or Discussion and/or Justification:
The Environmental Task Force used the following consultation process to identify the actions
described in this report. In early September 1998, the Task Force held a series of focussed
workshops in the areas of air/climate change, land, water, nature/greenspace, toxics/pollution
prevention and sustainable energy. Participants included Task Force members, city staff,
representatives from environmental groups and agencies, community groups, business,
education and labour. The workshops were chaired by City Councillors who are members of
the Task Force. The participants of the workshops were asked to identify important issues and
actions for their topic areas. In addition, they were asked to identify "quick start" ideas that
would result in improvements to the environment, achieve cost savings, create local
employment and require limited new resources to implement. Almost 200 "quick start" ideas
were identified through this process. Ranking by workshop participants and review by smaller
groups of participants and Environmental Task Force staff was used to screen the 200 actions
and generate a total of 28 possible actions for further consideration by the Task Force. A
subset of these 28 actions that are related to the toxics/pollution prevention, land and
air/climate change workshops are listed below.
Proposed Actions
Environmentally Responsible Procurement
Environmentally responsible procurement was identified as an important action in two
workshops sponsored by the Task Force. Environmentally responsible procurement means
buying products and services that have less impact on the environment than the next best
alternative (eg., energy efficient lighting, rechargeable batteries, products which are
recyclable, products containing post-consumer recycled content products, which produce
fewer polluting by-products or have a long service life etc). Environmentally responsible
procurement also includes finding ways to reduce the need to purchase products.
Environmentally responsible procurement benefits the environment and human health and
improves the public image of the organization. Some of the former municipalities including
the City of Toronto and Metropolitan Toronto, were already practicing aspects of
environmentally responsible procurement. Adopting a comprehensive and 'state of the art'
municipal environmentally responsible procurement policy would demonstrate leadership by
the new City of Toronto. The Director of the Purchasing and Materials Management Division
has advised the Task Force that a Environmentally Responsible Procurement Policy is
currently being developed and will be brought forward to City Council in the near future. The
Purchasing and Materials Management Division also could help to educate city staff about
environmentally responsible purchasing goals and objectives.
Toronto-Based Children's Environmental Health Network
Children tend to be more vulnerable to environmental risks than adults, and as such require
special protection. There is considerable movement in Canada to develop a national
Children's Environmental Health Network. Research conducted by Toronto Public Health in
1998 reveals very strong support in Ontario for creating a national Network. Toronto Public
Health is also undertaking a study to determine the feasibility of establishing a Toronto based
network.
A Toronto-based Network would provide easy access to information on how residents can
minimize their impact on the environment, as well as what parents and other care givers can to
do to protect children from environmental risks. Establishing a Toronto-based Network would
link with the emerging national Network in a mutually-beneficial manner. While the primary
emphasis of the Toronto-based Network would be to service the City of Toronto, the linkage
with the national Network would greatly increase the information resources available to the
City, as well as create another useful conduit through which local issues could influence the
national agenda.
The Environmental Task Force supports the idea of establishing a Toronto-based Children's
Environmental Health Network that focuses on education, research, policy and advocacy and
is compatible with the emerging (national) Canadian Children's Environmental Health
Network. .
Household Hazardous Waste
According to the Canadian Institute for Environmental Law and Policy (CIELAP, 1998), an
estimated 1.2 - 2.5 million tonnes of hazardous waste are generated in Ontario each year.
Household hazardous waste, which includes corrosives (e.g. batteries, drain and oven
cleaners, ammonia, etc.), explosives (e.g. aerosols, etc.), flammables (e.g. fuels, oils, paints
and solvents, etc.), and poisons (e.g. pesticides, garden products), are toxic to our health and
to the environment, Hazardous products can contaminate the soil, corrode plumbing, create
toxic fumes, damage the sewer system and pollute the water supply, and may pose hazards to
waste collection staff. These products have certainly made life easier, but with this
convenience comes the responsibility to use these materials and dispose of their wastes safely.
Approaches to reducing the consumption of hazardous materials will decrease the
environmental consequences of the wastes associated with their use. These include switching
to alternative non-toxic products, limiting the use of any hazardous materials (if these
products are necessary), buying only as much as needed and using all the hazardous material
purchased. If these products are needed and disposal is necessary, use of a household
hazardous waste depot is essential.
The role of the program areas within the City of Toronto is to raise awareness surrounding the
issue of household hazardous products and their wastes, the associated risks and impacts, and
to educate the citizenry on proper methods of use and disposal. The Environmental Task
Force is requesting summary information on actions that are currently being taken by the City
to reduce the release of household hazardous waste into the environment and suggestions for
actions that could be taken by this Task Force and/or City Council.
Plan for Disposal of Unused Pesticides
At its meeting on December 16 and 17, 1998 City Council adopted recommendations directed
at phasing out pesticide use by the City of Toronto. The Task Force strongly supports City
Council in this initiative and recommends that, as with other wastes which require specific
management under provincial regulations, a plan be prepared to ensure the disposal of any
stocks of pesticides which are no longer in use. Preparing a plan will ensure that any stock
piles of pesticides are addressed in a safe and timely manner, minimizing any potential risk to
both the corporation and employees.
Employee Suggestion Program
Many of the former municipalities have, or have had employee suggestion programs. Such
programs commonly aim to encourage and reward employee suggestions that result in
financial savings for the corporation. A benefit of such programs is improved morale as
employees are recognized and feel that they have contributed to making the organization work
better and saving the organization money. An indirect benefit of this type of program can
include reduced environmental impact of the corporation due to the changed activities and
their increased efficiency (e.g., changing from one-sided to two-sided printing of Council
reports saves paper and reduces paper and printing costs)
Reduction of Diesel Emissions
Under the Provincial Government's mandatory vehicle emissions testing program, vehicles
four years old or more will be required to undergo vehicle emissions testing every two years.
The Program will include both gasoline and diesel powered vehicles. According to the
Ontario Ministry of the Environment, the specifications of the Drive Clean Program will be in
place beginning in April 1999. The specifications on "heavy duty" diesel vehicles (e.g., trucks
and buses) are not expected to be in place until later in 1999.
The Drive Clean Program only applies to vehicles which are subject to annual licence
requirements. It is expected that the City operates certain types of diesel vehicles which are
not normally subject to annual license requirements which could be voluntarily subject to the
type of requirements that will apply to licensed vehicles. In addition to mobile sources of
diesel emissions, the City also operates stationary sources of diesel emissions which also
could be examined from an emission reduction perspective. According to Ministry of the
Environment staff, the two main causes of excessive emissions are frequency of maintenance
and changes to vehicle operating parameters (e.g., adjusting the fuel pump to get extra
performance), the type of diesel fuel used can also be a factor. Consideration should be given
to reducing the use of diesel fleet and equipment as one method of reducing emissions.
Diesel emissions are a concern because they have the potential to cause adverse health effects.
These effects include cancer and other pulmonary and cardiovascular diseases (Health Effects
Institute of Cambridge, MA, 1997). The composition of diesel exhaust varies considerably
depending on many factors but perhaps most importantly on the age of the engine. Emissions
of nitrogen oxides and particulate matter are higher in engines manufactured prior to 1980
(U.S. EPA, 1998).
Examining mobile and stationary sources of diesel emissions operated by the City (which are
not subject to the Drive Clean program) to determine opportunities to reduce emissions from
these sources would complement existing initiatives being undertaken through the City's
Green Fleets Committee to help meet smog reduction targets as outlined in the report, Smog:
Make It or Break It prepared by the Healthy City Office (City of Toronto, 1998)
Carbon Dioxide Emissions Accounting in Reports to City Council.
Reports to Toronto City Council are required to include information about the financial
sources and implications of recommendations. This information assists City officials in
making informed decisions. While information about the environmental implications of
recommendations is included in some reports, it would be beneficial to have a relatively
straight forward and standard way of summarizing information about environmental impacts
that could be used for all reports in the same way that summary financial information is
included in all reports. One possibility is to use carbon dioxide as an indicator of
environmental impact. The advantages of using carbon dioxide are that there are relatively
well developed and accepted ways of measuring carbon dioxide and carbon dioxide is one
direct measurement of environmental impact. Former Works Departments and the new City of
Toronto Department of Works and Emergency Services have, from time to time, included
carbon dioxide accounting information in reports to City Council. There are many examples
of these reports including the "Better Building Partnership: Continuation of the Pilot Program
into a Full-Scale Energy/Water Efficiency and Building Renewal Program Beyond 1998"
prepared by Works and the Environment (City of Toronto, 1997) and Deposit/Return System
for Alcoholic and Non-Alcoholic Beverage Containers" prepared by Works and Emergency
Services (City of Toronto, 1998)
In addition to providing additional decision making information, there are two other
significant benefits to the City reporting carbon dioxide emissions. The information would
help to determine progress towards achieving the carbon dioxide target which was adopted by
the City at its meeting on December 16 and 17, 1998 and it provides an additional mechanism
for identifying carbon credits which may be used in future carbon trades by the City.
The Task Force is recommending that reports to City Council incorporate carbon dioxide
reporting in a similar manner as funding sources/implications are reported. The
implementation of this reporting could begin with Works and Emergency Services
Department reports which has extensive experience with carbon dioxide accounting. As
experience with carbon dioxide reporting is gained, other departments could be included.
Emissions Testing Certification and Toronto Licencing Commission
The Toronto Licencing Commission presently issues operating licenses for vehicles such as
taxis, tow trucks, limousines, etc. Under this authority exists the opportunity to require
reasonable pre-conditions to acquiring a Toronto operating license such as emissions testing
certification for fuel-burning vehicles.
The Task Force to review the Taxi Industry in Toronto is preparing its final recommendations
at the present time. Some of the areas to be addressed in the final report will include age limits
for taxis and more cab inspectors. Setting age limits for taxis would effectively take the oldest
and worst polluting vehicles out of service. More cab inspections could allow for verification
that emission testing and repairs have been carried out.
The Environmental Task Force recommends that the Toronto Licencing Commission include
emissions testing certification as a pre-condition for Metro licence renewal on fuel-burning
vehicles such as taxis, tow trucks, limousines, etc. and consider a way of recognizing this
certification of the vehicle as a positive reinforcement and as a way to promote this
achievement to Tourists.
Tax-Exempt Status for Employer Provided Transit Passes
One opportunity to increase the market for transit benefits, and increase transit ridership,
would be to change the taxable status of employer provided transit passes. In the current
system, Federal tax law favours cars over transit. Employees who get employer-provided
parking are not obligated to pay tax on that benefit unless their parking spot is for their
exclusive use. But in the current tax regime, if an employer gives a transit pass, recipients
must declare this as part of their income. According to some experts, this policy penalizes
employer provided transit passes that would otherwise contribute to less traffic congestion,
reduce levels of vehicle related emissions and their associated health impacts and costs and
reduce energy consumption.
The National Task Force to Promote Employer Provided Tax-Exempt Transit Passes has been
coordinating the efforts of different stakeholders to support tax-exempt transit benefits. The
Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) has identified the change in taxable status as a key
activity in their "Park & Ride" strategy to increase ridership and is also developing a
marketing strategy aimed at encouraging large employers in the City to provide monthly
transit passes to their employees. The TTC, GO Transit, the Amalgamated Transit Union, and
dozens of other organizations, including the Canadian Urban Transit Authority, Toronto
Board of Trade, Pollution Probe, the Canadian Lung Association and Physicians for Global
Survival support the elimination of this "discriminatory" tax policy. The former Metropolitan
Toronto was very supportive of this endeavour. The City of Toronto should encourage the
activities of these organizations to change the taxable status of transit passes because increases
in transit ridership, not only increases revenue for the transit organizations (and reduces the
operating subsidy that is required) but it also reduces the harmful emissions from the
automobile that impair local air quality and add to global warming. Specific action for the
City as part of this partnership could include a letter from City Council/ Mayor's office
supporting the current actions of the transit organizations and asking the Federal Minister of
Finance to change the current taxable status of employer provided transit passes. To further
this cause, City Councillors could meet with the local Members of Parliament to increase
awareness and solicit their support.
Once the tax policy is changed, the corporation of the City of Toronto could review how it
could act as an employer in offering the transit pass as an employee benefit. This would also
benefit the organization as many City employees already take transit as part of their jobs.
Conclusions
The actions described in this report were identified through three stakeholder workshops
sponsored by the Environmental Task Force in September 1988. The Task Force is requesting
that these actions be taken. The actions will benefit the environment, most can be done
relatively easily and build upon actions that were underway in former parts of the new City. In
consulting with program staff about the proposed actions, it was determined that, in many
cases, the proposed actions were consistent with directions already being taken, were planned
to be undertaken at some time in the future or were recognized as actions that should be taken.
Contact Name and Telephone Number:
Jane Weninger
Project Manager
Environmental Task Force
Phone (416) 392-6788
Fax (416) 392-7418
Jack Layton
Chair, Environmental Task Force
