Environmental Task Force - Quick Starts

The Strategic Policies and Priorities Committee recommends:

(1)the adoption of the report (April 26, 1999) from the Chief Administrative Officer;

(2)that all the Quick Starts, except for the seven listed in the body of the aforementioned report, be forwarded to the appropriate committee as soon as possible;

(3)the seven Quick Starts first be reviewed by the Toronto Inter-Departmental Environment Team (TIE) as outlined in the aforementioned report and be forwarded to the appropriate committee by September 1999, for report or progress update; and

(4)that a copy of each of the reports be forwarded to the Environmental Task Force (ETF) for information:

Purpose:

This report outlines the process for the internal review of the Environmental Task Force (ETF) - Quick Start Actions and provides an update on the status of individual items.

Financial Implications:

There are no immediate financial implications to this report. Subsequent reports produced in response to individual quick start recommendations will provide details of the financial implications of implementation.

Recommendation:

It is recommended that the process outlined in this report be endorsed.

Council Reference:

At its meeting of December 16-17, 1998, City Council referred the report entitled "Sustainable Energy, Greenspace/Nature and Water Actions" from the Chair, Environmental Task Force to the Toronto Inter-Departmental Environment (TIE) Team and "requested the Chief Administrative Officer to report to its February 1999 meeting on the feasibility, timing and costs/benefits of the recommendations on standards" recommended in the report. As part of that report, the Chief Administrative Officer and the Commissioner of Works and Emergency Services, as the co-chairs of TIE were also asked to coordinate the preparation of the reports requested and provide monthly status reports to ETF on the progress of the recommendations.

At its meeting of January 26, 1999, the Strategic Policies and Priorities Committee (SPPC) referred the report entitled "Toxics, Pollution Prevention, Land and Air Climate Change Actions", dated January 12 from the Chair of ETF, to the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) for a coordinated response to the recommendations.

At its meeting of February 23, 1999, the Strategic Policies and Priorities Committee referred the report entitled "Toronto Food Policy Council - Food and Agricultural Quick Starts", dated February 1, 1999, from the Chair of ETF, to the CAO for a coordinated response to the recommendations.

Background History:

As part of its mandate, the Environmental Task Force was requested "to identify and launch a series of urgent environmental initiatives to address pressing concerns such as smog, energy and water conservation, waste reduction as well as others". The ETF responded to this mandate by developing a list of "quick start actions" which could be undertaken by the corporation to address pressing environmental concerns of the Task Force and community members, and to ensure that the 'best' environmental practices of former municipalities were considered for expansion in the new City.

In September and October 1998, ETF held a series of workshops to develop these quick start actions in the following categories:

(i)air/climate change;

(ii)sustainable energy;

(iii)water;

(iv)land;

(v)greenspace/nature;

(vi)toxics/pollution prevention; and

(vii)food.

The workshops brought together various stakeholders from the environmental groups, business, the academic and scientific communities, City Council, and staff to develop recommendations for Task Force consideration. The ETF considered the recommendations of each of the workshops and developed three succinct lists of recommendations for consideration by SPPC. These reports have been considered by City Council and TIE has been asked to coordinate the responses to the recommendations, report on their feasibility, and provide a monthly status report on their progress to ETF.

Comments:

The quick start recommendations were developed to address concerns from the community and Task Force members that the task force process was too long to wait for the City to act on some important environmental issues. They also felt that there were actions which the corporation could take in the short term, without too much additional human or financial cost to the corporation.

A review of the recommendations suggests that of the 34 quick starts proposed, 7 would benefit from a corporate overview by the Toronto Inter-departmental Environment (TIE) Team in order to ensure that there is appropriate coordination among departments, that the appropriate lead is designated, and/or that the long term costs, benefits and corporate impacts are assessed. The 7 quick starts which will be reviewed by TIE include:

(1)incorporate higher energy efficiency and conservation objectives into the construction of new buildings in the City than are currently required by the Ontario Building Code;

(2)a comprehensive long term strategy to minimize operating and capital energy expenditures and achieve the highest feasible levels of CO₂ emission reduction in facilities owned by the City;

(3)appropriate funding strategies for combined sewer overflow and stormwater management initiatives;

(4)Council endorse the practice of increasing the purchase of Canadian organic food by the City; and that Council direct the appropriate City officials responsible for food service contracts to ensure that the purchase of Canadian organic food increases over the term of food service contracts between the City and food service providers;

(5)the Human Resources Director investigate the program run by Husky Molding Company, which provides organic food to employees at discounted prices, which has resulted in a reduction of absenteeism and lower medical and drug costs;

(6)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; and

(7)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.

TIE will coordinate a corporate review of these reports, bringing the discussions forward to Senior Management, where necessary. The final reports will be brought forward by the appropriate commissioner to the appropriate committee. In cases where no commissioner is designated, TIE will assign an appropriate lead department.

Status of the Quick Starts:

The Commissioner of Works and Emergency Services, as the co-chair of TIE, is preparing bi-monthly status reports on the progress of the quick start actions for ETF. The first report was forwarded to the January 28 meeting of ETF and the second report to the April 27 ETF meeting. See Appendix for the table of details regarding the status of individual items.

The table indicates that of the 34 quick starts, 4 items or reports have already gone forward to Council, 4 have been incorporated into processes underway, and 3 reports are prepared and have been forwarded to the appropriate committee for consideration at the next meeting.

Conclusion:

The quick starts were intended either to assist in advancing environmentally beneficial initiatives already underway, or to bring forward new initiatives which, with a relatively small investment, could bring about long term environmental benefits. In some cases, a further evaluation of the recommendations has revealed that TIE could assist in co-ordinating responses which require inter-departmental collaboration, analyzing the corporate implications of the recommendations, and in some cases in bringing forward the recommendation more quickly. The other quick starts (not listed above) should go forward to the appropriate committee as soon as possible.

Contact:

Lisa Salsberg, (Acting) Manager, Healthy City Office; 392-1086.

The Strategic Policies and Priorities Committee submits the following communication (May4,1999) from Councillor Jack Layton, Chair, Environmental Task Force:

It is recommended that the Recommendation embodied in the report (April 26, 1999) from the Chief Administrative Officer be amended by adding the following subsections:

(1)that all the quick starts, except for the seven listed in the body of the report, go forward to the appropriate committee as soon as possible;

(2)that the seven quick starts first be reviewed by the Toronto Inter-Departmental Environment Team (TIE) as outlined in the report go to the appropriate committee by September 1999, for report or progress update; and

(2)that a copy of each of the reports be forwarded to the Environmental Task Force (ETF) for information.

Rationale:

Subsection A makes explicit the intention of the report, as outlined in the final sentence of the conclusion. Subsection B asks that reports (or, where necessary, progress updates) on the seven outstanding Quick Starts be made to the appropriate committee within five months. These amendments have received approval from the Chief Administrative Officer.