Award winners (left to right): Gerry Chaput, Chris Papatolis, Kyle Perdue, Graham DeRose, Shawn Smith, Carol Layton, Tom Hewitt, Tony Loong, Lou Politano

Today, staff at the Ministry of Transportation (MTO) received the Environmental Commissioner of Ontario’s (ECO) 2011 Recognition Award for using two environmentally beneficial innovations: bioretention cells and rubber modified asphalt (RMA). The innovations are used at the carpool lot in Beamsville, Ontario, located at the Queen Elizabeth Way and Ontario Street Interchange.

This project earned MTO the ECO Recognition Award for its benefits on stormwater management, waste diversion and the promotion of carpooling.

“This is the second year in a row that MTO received this award,” said Gord Miller, Environmental Commissioner of Ontario. “The ministry provided a good example for municipalities, agencies and the public sector for use in future road planning and construction. I look forward to seeing more such innovative efforts to conserve our environment from other ministries.”

The bioretention cells mimic the natural hydrologic cycle. It infiltrates, filters, evaporates and detains sediments that flow from the pavement of the parking lot (runoff), while treating pollution at its source. Bioretention also acts as habitat for wildlife, improves air quality and reduces the urban heat island effect. Approximately 4,000 cubic meters of runoff is filtered through the system each year, equivalent to two Olympic sized swimming pools.

RMA is made from scrap rubber tires, ground and conventional hot mix asphalt. About 4 tonnes of scrap rubber tires were used for the Ontario Street carpool lot, preventing 624 tires from ending up in the landfill. The use of RMA in this project will help further develop the technology so scrap tires can be diverted from landfills and less virgin natural resources will be used in future paving projects.

Each year, the ECO invites ministries to submit programs and projects for special recognition. The ECO’s Recognition Award acknowledges those ministries that best meet the goals of the Environmental Bill of Rights, 1993 (EBR) or use the best internal EBR practices. In 2011, five ministries responded to the ECO’s call for nominations, submitting 15 projects for consideration. An arm’s-length panel reviewed the submissions.

For a list of past recipients of the ECO’s Recognition Award, visit http://www.ecoissues.ca/index.php/The_Environmental_Commissioner%E2%80%99s_Recognition_Award_2011

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Toronto, January 10, 2012 – The Environmental Commissioner of Ontario says the Government of Ontario must come up with a new strategy to stem the continuing decline in Ontario’s species and natural spaces.  In a special report released today, “Biodiversity: A Nation’s Commitment, an Obligation for Ontario,” Gord Miller says unless Ontario and all other provinces take action, the international commitments made by the federal government will be meaningless.

“The Ontario government did adopt a Biodiversity Strategy in 2005,” says Gord Miller. “Unfortunately, it expired in 2010, and the government has so far chosen not to adopt an updated plan.  Our government cannot avoid its obligation,” says Miller, “to guide Ontario’s response to this urgent crisis.”

In 2010, Canada met with almost 200 nations in Nagoya, Japan and agreed on 20 biodiversity conservation targets that should be achieved by 2020.   But the Commissioner says most of the constitutional responsibility for meeting these targets lies with Ontario and the other provincial governments. “Efforts to halt the loss of biodiversity must be implemented at the provincial level if they are to be effective. And Ontario won’t be able to do that unless it has a new Biodiversity Strategy.”

In Ontario, the most significant threats to the province’s species and natural spaces are habitat degradation, climate change, invasive species, overexploitation and pollution.  The Commissioner has previously warned about the lack of action to safeguard the province’s 200 species at risk such as snapping turtles, cougars, and Jefferson salamanders. Gord Miller has said the government also needs to address the threats from invasive species like Asian carp, and protect wetlands and woodlands in southern Ontario.

The Environmental Commissioner says, “the federal government has promised, during the current International Decade for Biodiversity, to conserve biodiversity on behalf of all Canadians.” It is imperative that the Government of Ontario acts quickly and come up with a plan to implement those commitments.  This requires a new Biodiversity Strategy. Rhetoric alone will not suffice.”

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 The Environmental Commissioner of Ontario is appointed by the Legislative Assembly to be the province’s independent environmental watchdog, reporting publicly on the government’s environmental decision making.

Download the special report “Biodiversity: A Nation’s Commitment, an Obligation for Ontario” and the Commissioner’s opening remarks to the Legislature at http://www.eco.on.ca/

Watch the Commissioner’s comments of this report here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7U-6mWZcio4

For more information, contact:

Maria Leung

Communications and Outreach Coordinator

Environmental Commissioner of Ontario

416-325-3371

1-800-701-6454

maria.leung@eco.on.ca

For support in French, please contact Jean-Marc Filion at 705-476-9665.

Aussi disponible en français 

The Environmental Commissioner of Ontario will release a special report at a media conference on January 10, 2012 at 10:00 a.m.

The conference will also be available via webcast. To watch the live broadcast of the media conference, please visit http://www.eco.on.ca/. Please note the Commissioner will not be taking questions via webcast, but will be available for individual interviews after the news conference.

WHEN: Tuesday, January 10, 2012 at 10:00 a.m.

WHERE: Room 149, Queen’s Park Media Studio, Legislative Assembly of Ontario
Legislative Building, Queen’s Park, Toronto, Ontario

For more information or to schedule interviews, contact:

Maria Leung, Communications & Outreach Coordinator,
416-325-3371 or maria.leung@eco.on.ca.

For French language release and bilingual support, contact:

Jean-Marc Filion, 705-476-9665.

• Media not currently accredited by the Legislative Assembly (Queen’s Park) Media Gallery must register with the Press Gallery if they wish to participate in the conference. To register, contact Gerald Christopher, Press Gallery Coordinator – Room 387A or 416-325-7922 or gerald_christopher@ontla.ola.org.
• The full Report will be available in print, PDF and e-book (.epub) formats at 10:00 a.m. on January 10, 2012. To download the report, visit http://www.eco.on.ca.

Media Release

Toronto, December 7, 2011 – The Environmental Commissioner of Ontario says the government’s energy conservation achievements are substantial, but incomplete. In releasing volume two of his 2010 Energy Conservation Progress Report, Managing a Complex Energy System – Results, Gord Miller says “the government achieved two-thirds of an electricity conservation target that it had set. It’s a respectable showing given that Ontario’s targets are among the most ambitious in North America”.

What concerns Miller more is that the value of conservation seems to have been lost in the public debates over energy, especially when debating electricity prices or building new generating plants. “The government should step up conservation efforts because it saves customers money, reduces environmental damage, and helps avoid new and often unpopular power plants,” Miller says. As the past two years have shown, willing host communities of any type of power plant are hard to find.

The Environmental Commissioner says the Annual Energy Conservation Progress Report shows mixed results in the government’s conservation efforts.

• Ontario’s electricity conservation efforts reduced peak demand by 1,750 megawatts (MW) in 2010 due to new programs and initiatives that began in 2005. This is the equivalent to not having to build three new natural gas-fired peaker plants. By investing about $1.7 billion in conservation programs, Ontario saved electricity ratepayers $3.8 billion in avoided electricity supply costs. However, this achievement was only 65% of the 2,700 MW peak demand reduction target that the government had set itself.
• Energy savings from the conservation programs operated by the province’s natural gas utilities performed well against the targets approved by the Ontario Energy Board. These programs were very cost-effective, providing more than $400 million in net benefits and a reduction of 185 million cubic metres in the amount of natural gas used in 2010.
• There are no results available on the conservation impact of time-of use (TOU) pricing.  The government is only now beginning to measure how people have changed their consumption with the introduction of TOU. The prices, set semi-annually by the Ontario Energy Board, are not based on actual data of how price levels affect customers’ consumption. TOU prices should incorporate this real-world information in order to maximize the amount of conservation.

 There is a risk that electric utilities will not meet their 2014 electricity conservation targets. Not only was there a delay in the province-wide programs delivered by the Ontario Power Authority, but the Ontario Energy Board has been unsupportive of customized programs that were supposed to be offered by utilities.

The Environmental Commissioner says “I want to impress upon the new Energy Minister, in light of the actions of the Ontario Energy Board and program delays, that immediate action is required if the electric utilities are to meet the 2014 targets that are a condition of their licence. The alternative,” says Miller, “is to give them more time.”

Download the full report

Download the Commissioner’s opening remarks

For more information on the report, please refer to the backgrounder

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Aussi disponible en français

For more information, contact:

Maria Leung

Communications and Outreach Coordinator

Environmental Commissioner of Ontario

416-325-3371 / 416-819-1673

1-800-701-6454

Maria.leung@eco.on.ca

For bilingual support, please contact Jean-Marc Filion: 705-476-9665

The Environmental Commissioner of Ontario is the province’s independent environmental watchdog, appointed by the Legislative Assembly. The ECO monitors and reports on compliance with the Environmental Bill of Rights, the government’s progress in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and its actions towards achieving greater energy conservation in Ontario.

 

 

The Environmental Commissioner of Ontario will release Volume Two of his 2010 energy conservation report, Managing a Complex Energy System – Results. The report summarizes the province’s progress in meeting electricity conservation targets and reviews the performance of provincial programs to conserve energy.

The conference will be available via webcast. To watch the live broadcast of the media conference, please visit http://www.eco.on.ca/.

Please note the Commissioner will not be taking questions via webcast, but will be available for individual interviews after the news conference.

WHAT: Release of the Environmental Commissioner’s Annual Energy Conservation Progress Report – 2010 (Volume Two), Managing a Complex Energy System – Results.

WHEN: Wednesday, December 7, 2011 at 10:00 a.m.

WHERE: Room 149, Queen’s Park Media Studio, Legislative Assembly of Ontario
Legislative Building, Queen’s Park, Toronto, Ontario

For more information or to schedule interviews, contact:

Maria Leung, Communications & Outreach Coordinator,
416-325-3371 or email maria.leung@eco.on.ca.

For French language release and bilingual support, please contact:

Jean-Marc Filion, 705-476-9665.

• Media not currently accredited by the Legislative Assembly (Queen’s Park) Media Gallery must register with the Press Gallery if they wish to participate in the conference. To register, contact Gerald Christopher, Press Gallery Coordinator – Room 387A or 416-325-7922 or gerald_christopher@ontla.ola.org.
• The full Report will be available in print, PDF and e-book (.epub) formats at 10:00 a.m. on December 7, 2011. To download the report, visit http://www.eco.on.ca.

Aussi disponible en français.

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The Environmental Commissioner of Ontario is the province’s independent environmental watchdog. Appointed by the Legislative Assembly, the ECO monitors and reports on compliance with the Environmental Bill of Rights, the government’s progress in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and its actions towards achieving greater energy conservation in Ontario.

• Download the ECO’s 2010/11 Annual Report Engaging Solutions (.pdf).
• Download the Supplement to the Annual Report (.pdf)
• Click to download the Commissioner’s Remarks to the Legislature (.pdf)

(Toronto, November 29, 2011) Ontario’s Environmental Commissioner is worried that Ontario has lost momentum when it comes to the province’s pressing environmental issues.

In his 2010/2011 Annual Report “Engaging Solutions” released today, Gord Miller says there’s no shortage of talk about the problems such as climate change, waste diversion, and the loss of biodiversity. “But when it comes to doing something” says Miller, “there doesn’t seem to be a lot actually happening.

The Environmental Commissioner cited a number of examples of this lack of inertia in his annual report:

• On waste, the Ministry of the Environment has written four different reports and discussion papers outlining options for increasing waste diversion in the province. But this has resulted in little action on what Miller says should be one of the government’s top environmental priorities.

• On species-at-risk, the Ministry of Natural Resources is not doing enough to protect and recover species at risk. Much of what the ministry is doing has become an empty bureaucratic exercise that does little on-the-ground to tangibly benefit endangered species.

• On funding, the Government of Ontario has passed notable legislation such as the Lake Simcoe Protection Act, 2008, the Endangered Species Act, 2007 and the Green Energy Act, 2009, but has not given the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Ministry of the Environment the additional resources they need to oversee and monitor new legislation while also covering their previous core responsibilities.

• On the Great Lakes, lengthy negotiations between Ontario and the federal government threaten to paralyze progress towards further clean-up, and Ontario is allowing its existing policy tools to idle. Meantime, the Obama administration has promised $2.2 billion over 5 years.

Miller says this lack of action is not accidental: it’s actually the goal of critics of environmental protection. “We respond to people who say they don’t believe there’s a problem”, says the Environmental Commissioner, “by going back to the research findings to debate and explain it all over again. And then, when it looks like progress is being made, others say the proposed solutions won’t work, or are too costly. And so we go back to the beginning again.”

“We have to find a way to get to a point of action on these issues” says the Environmental Commissioner. “We don’t see ourselves as having a culture of inaction and procrastination. Yet that would be a fair criticism from any impartial observer.”

The Environmental Commissioner of Ontario is appointed by the Legislative Assembly to be the province’s independent environmental watchdog, reporting publicly on the government’s environmental decision making.

Click here to download the full report (.pdf).

Accompanying media releases:

MOE and MNR Can’t Handle Core Responsibilities

Ontario Government Failing Endangered Species

Government Failing to Reduce Ontario’s Waste

• Download the full report (.pdf).
• Download the Supplement to the Annual Report (.pdf)
• Click to download the Commissioner’s Remarks to the Legislature (.pdf)

Have you noticed that as a society we seem to have lost momentum on dealing with environmental issues? There is no shortage of talk about our current and impending challenges of climate change, high energy costs, water shortages and loss or disruption of our biodiversity, but there doesn’t seem to be much actually happening to address these problems.

Probably the best example of such lack of progress is the international stalemate on climate change, but I see this pattern of inaction reverberating through a range of topics in this report. Why can’t we get on with things? We don’t see ourselves as having a culture of inaction and procrastination. Yet that is how a remote impartial observer might quite reasonably characterize us. Perhaps something is not working in our policy system. I know the word policy evokes glazed eyes and bored yawns from many people but it should not be that way. Policy is about finding a way forward through unknown and challenging territory. Good policy, like a good path through a dark wood, allows you to progress with confidence toward a destination or objective.

Developing and applying policy for an environmental issue is, in its essence, a simple process. First you recognize that there is an issue or problem and define its nature. Then you analyze all aspects of the problem in order to get a level of understanding that will allow you to evaluate possible approaches or actions and perhaps figure out some metrics to measure progress. And in a third stage you take action. You try to do things to solve the problem based on what is known. If you follow through on those three steps – recognize, analyze and engage – the process leads logically to a solution.

It seems we often get stuck at the second step or sometimes the first. Take climate change for example. Over decades of research and international scientific consensus we have certainly recognized and defined the problem. All aspects of the methods of reducing our greenhouse gas emissions have been analyzed and an array of actions proposed. But then it stops; at the international level we engage no solutions. Instead we respond to voices that say that they don’t believe in climate change by going back to the recognition stage to debate and explain it all again. And, if it looks like progress is being made toward taking action other voices say that the proposed solutions won’t work or are too costly and the discussion reverts back to start the analysis again.

Some people really are very good at casting doubt or confusion in the public’s mind on the nature of environmental problems and their possible solutions. After all, they are often complicated issues. And, some of these people may be legitimately sceptical. But there are others who are public relations professionals and are deliberately confusing the issues to serve the agenda of one or another vested interest. These people understand the policy process and are adept at resetting the discussion back to the recognition and analysis stage. Their job is to stop society from engaging solutions. And, regrettably and increasingly, we let them.

I don’t know why this short circuiting of our policy regime exists. Perhaps it stems from a lack of champions to lead the charge on some of these important environmental initiatives. Perhaps there is some failing in our media system such that the public remains uninformed on the truth of these matters. Perhaps the public is just too overwhelmed by the complexity of today’s society and can’t deal with these concerns in a thoughtful way. Perhaps it is all of the above. But we must get over this malaise because the environmental challenges of our times are not going away.

We have to find a way to get to a point of action on these issues. Only when you engage solutions by trying something does the full potential of human ingenuity and creativity kick in. Certainly there will be errors, but innovation feeds on errors by spawning new ideas and new approaches. We learn by doing, and doing involves failing but it also involves opening our eyes to new solutions. And some of those solutions may be engaging indeed.

The Environmental Commissioner of Ontario, Gord Miller, will release his 2010/11 Annual Report, Engaging Solutions, at a media conference in the Queen’s Park Media Studio at 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday, November 29, 2011.

The report will be made available online at www.eco.on.ca at the start of the conference. Accredited media can obtain a printed copy of the report at the Legislative Press Gallery, in Room 387A of the Ontario Legislature Building.

Media who wish to participate in the media conference but are not currently accredited by the Legislative Assembly (Queen’s Park) Media Gallery must register with the Press Gallery Coordinator, Gerald Christopher – Room 387A or 416-325-7922.

Topics covered in the 2010/11 Annual Report, Engaging Solutions include:

• Waste reduction
• Budgets for the Ministry of Environment and Ministry of Natural Resources
• Species at Risk
• Great Lakes
• Growth in the Far North
• Oak Ridges Moraine

A webcast of the conference will be broadcasted via www.eco.on.ca starting at 10:00 a.m. on November 29. Please note an up-to-date version of Windows Media Player is required to view the webcast.

The Environmental Commissioner will not be taking questions via webcast, but will be available for individual interviews after the news conference. Bilingual support will also be available at the event. For more details, please visit www.eco.on.ca.

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The Environmental Commissioner of Ontario is appointed by the Legislative Assembly to be the province’s independent environmental watchdog, and report publicly on the government’s environmental decision-making.

Aussi disponible en français.

For more information or to schedule interviews, contact:
Maria Leung

Communications and Outreach Coordinator
Environmental Commissioner of Ontario
416-325-3371 / 416-819-1673
maria.leung@eco.on.ca

For bilingual support, please contact Jean-Marc Filion at 705-476-9665.

November, a month where conversations tend to lament the long lost days of summer, has seen a remarkable number of conversations about a similarly depressing topic: overcrowded transportation infrastructure in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton area (GTHA).  At the beginning of the month, the Canadian Urban Transit Association held its fall conference. Sponsored by TTC and Metrolinx, the title was Public Transit: Investing in Quality of Life. This was followed up with Toronto Talks Mobility, a session organized by the Pembina Institute, Councillor Joe Mihevc and the University of Toronto’s Cities Centre. Coming up later this month is a “Mobility Pricing Stakeholder Forum” sponsored by Transport Futures.  These conversations are driven by projections that the GTHA will add close to 3 million new people in the next 20 years. Given current car ownership trends, this will result in an additional 1 million automobiles trying to access roads that are already hopelessly congested.   But isn’t the GTHA already at “peak car” with traffic congestion rates among the worst in North America? And aren’t vehicles already the largest sources of greenhouse gases in Ontario (see chart below)? Can we afford to put all these additional vehicles on the road, you ask? Good question.

The message emerging from these conversations is that we need to get serious about moving people out of their cars and onto mass transit. But with the GTHA’s public transit system in its own state of chronic underfunding, significant investment – $80 billion dollars was the amount being tossed around at the Toronto Talks Mobility session – is required to make it a viable alternative.  That is a huge sum of money for cash strapped governments in a time of fiscal austerity, and so innovative funding mechanisms will be required. Metrolinx is required to release an investment strategy to find the money by no later than 2013; why the delay? Let’s get this strategy released for public discussion sooner so that it can influence and inform transit planning and decision-making in 2012. The longer we wait, the greater the chance that we’ll continue to make planning decisions that will lock-in our commuting patterns for decades to come.

While I have pointed to the potential for road pricing to bridge the funding gap in both my 2010 and 2011 annual greenhouse gas progress reports and in a recent blog, most decision-makers in the region are reluctant to entertain it as a possibility. Most of the speakers at the Toronto Talks Mobility session danced around the issue of road pricing. Mississauga Mayor Hazel McCallion did suggest, however, that road tolls and related road pricing will have to be evaluated as a funding option. She stressed repeatedly that this will be tough to sell to the commuting public, especially those traveling to work in single-occupancy vehicles. She conceded however, that if the monies were put towards funding rapid transit – and only rapid transit – this would be an easier sell.  The elephant in the room is making its presence known.

If you are participating in the 2011 A.D. Latornell Conservation Symposium this week and are interested in biodiversity, don’t forget to attend Water as Biodiversity (Session W1C) on Wednesday (November 16) at 2 pm in Room 10. Commissioner Miller will be speaking about biodiversity in Ontario and what we must do by 2020. For more on what the ECO has said about biodiversity, click here.

The ECO also has a new booth and interactive touch screen. Come visit us at Booth #6 in Exhibitors Gallery A – Crystal Ball Room. We will be there to answer questions about the Environmental Bill of Rights, the Environmental Registry, our Annual Reports and other questions related to the ECO.

We will also be tweeting at the conference. Follow us at @ONT_ECO.

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