Since starting this blog a month and a half ago, I guess I was hit with a sense of futility. I'm reminded this week of the need to act, and to put optimism ahead of fear. So I am continuing to take action in the world, and to post on this blog, starting with something I wrote on the Core Services Review, and never posted – it's not too late though, we’ll have an opportunity September 19 and on to continue to take action on preserving the city we love!
July 15, 2011
I spent most of last Thursday, one of the very hottest days our city has ever seen, in the air conditioned comfort of City Hall. The weather wasn’t the only reason I was there. I attended the Parks and Environment Committee’s meeting to consider KPMG’s proposed cuts to services, including parks and zoos, horticulture, urban forestry, and the Toronto Environment Office and Live Green Toronto. 339 citizens wrote letters in support of these programmes. Over 7000 citizens signed a petition in support of maintaining Riverdale Farm. And there were over 70 deputants who came downtown to speak to the committee on behalf of our city. The meeting began at 9:30, and it ended after 11 pm. It was a scary day, and ultimately a terribly disappointing one, but it was also exciting and inspiring.
Inspiring because this was where so many people came to speak so eloquently for our city. We (the broad we – because so many people spoke of so many important and interconnected issues) represented ourselves, our families, our neighbourhoods, and organizations like the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, Toronto Environmental Alliance, LEAF, CityTV, CUPE, Food Forward, Food Share. We spoke of our pride in being a city that leads. We spoke of the power of the Live Green programme to help inspire, train, and organize citizens to develop community gardens; retrofit their condo buildings; establish green roofs; and develop programmes to promote access to locally grown, healthy food. We spoke of our love for our parks, and of the vast body of research that shows how important parks are for our physical and mental well-being. We spoke of the importance of maintaining and enhancing our urban tree canopy. We spoke of the economic value of ecological services. We spoke of the urgency of acting on climate change. A recent article in the July 2011 issue of Scientific American was highlighted, and so was the work of James Hansen. We spoke of the essential role of the Toronto Environment Office in coordinating environment-related programmes, in adopting and promoting energy conservation measures, and preparing for and mitigating the effects of climate change-related extreme weather events. We spoke of the failure to act on the part of our federal government, and the essential need for, and potential of, action by our municipal government. We spoke of how far our city has come already, and how much further we must go, if we are to achieve climate justice. And we spoke of the $6 annual tax increase it would take to maintain all the services KPMG is recommending we cut.
Scary because we knew how much there is to lose. And disappointing because we certainly did not win. The four members of the PEC who were present to the end did not make a decision this day, and neither did they defer the decision until September when the City Manager’s Report and other information would be available – as so many deputants requested. Instead they abdicated their responsibility for this essential decision and referred it to the right-leaning Executive Committee, to be considered in September.
Yet exciting because there was an energy in the room – not only from the deputants, but also from the city councilors. Not so much from the members of the PEC – in fact of the six members, one (Raymond Cho) was absent for the entire day, and the other (James Pasternak) was present for the morning only – but it seems that only four of six are required even to make decisions that will affect so many for so long. No, the great energy came from the visiting councilors who joined the meeting, and asked the right questions. Shelley Carrroll, Janet Davis, Sarah Doucette, and Paula Fletcher were present for almost the whole day. They spoke of “our responsibilities to the planet” and of the need to address climate change as a core service. They wondered aloud how the city could eliminate the expertise and organization of the Toronto Environment Office while still needing the services the TEO provides. And they, along with others who smiled on the proceedings, reminded us that there is great energy in city hall, and great passion for our city, our citizens, and our planet.
With this energy, this excitement, this inspiration, and with this fear, we must now look ahead to the Executive Committee meetings in September. Now we know that we are not alone. We know that there are many, many citizens who want parks, trees, local food, and a commitment to the economic, social and environmental wellbeing of current and future generations. We have 2 months to organize, to talk, to volunteer, to share, so that in September we will be again ready to write, depute, sign petitions, and make our voices heard.
In the meantime, we must prepare for the July 28 Executive Committee meeting, at which decisions may be made to privatize our libraries and to cut transit. For all these issues, we must be ready to hold our councilors accountable to do their job – to make decisions based not on their own opinions or ideological positions, no matter how far to the right, or left, they may lie, but on the expressed wishes of their constituents. We must be ready – if we want to continue to live in a leading city, and a healthy planet.
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