Toronto's Climate Challenge

APRIL 4TH FORUM - TORONTO'S CLIMATE CHALLENGE

On April 4th 200 people attended a presentation with Dianne Saxe, Environmental Commissioner of Ontario, at Toronto's City Hall. The theme of her talk was 'Facing Climate Change' and you can view the slides of her presentation through the link on this page. You can read her full report.

Councillor Mary-Margaret McMahon, chair of Parks and Environment committee, and a member of the City's Executive Committee, welcomed participants to the forum. Following Mary-Margaret's remarks we showed a 3 minute video of Mayor Tory speaking after the Paris Climate Summit in Dec 2015 on his vision for climate action in the City of Toronto.

Adria Vasil, author and journalist, introduced Dianne, and Faizaan Ali Khan, of Toronto Youth Environmental Council thanked Dianne.

Jim Baxter, Director of Toronto's Environment and Energy Division, spoke on the City's TransformTO 2050 report which will be released on April 27th. This report will show how the City can achieve 80% reduction in CO2 emissions by 2050. Baxter stressed that it will take ALL of the measures recommended to achieve this. TransformTO is organizing 2 webinars to introduce the report and take questions, one on April 27th, and one on May 2nd.

Councillor Sarah Doucette introduced Jim Baxter and Dusha Sritharan of Toronto Environmental Alliance thanked Jim Baxter. Dusha added comments about the work of the Modelling Advisory Group which is addressing the question of community benefits linked to taking action to reduce GHG emissions.

The forum ended with a q and a followed by workshops in giving deputations, writing a letter to the editor, and speaking with your councillor.

The TanformTO report will go to the May 4th meeting of Parks and Environment which will hear deputations from the community.

ClimateFast's CarbonfreeTO campaign encourages everyone to get involved as this is a very important decision for the city. Stay informed by signing up here.

To watch the forum, please click on the link which will take you to footage filmed by Julia Barnes.

Julia is filmmaker of 'Sea of Life' and will introduce the film 'Revolution' at our next film screening, Monday April 24th, 6:30 pm, North York City Hall.

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Toronto's Climate Challenge