The people united!...

Monday afternoon, thousands of people rallied at Nathan Phillips Square to preserve city services like childcare, transit, and environmental programmes. The community mobilisation that has been building all summer is making a difference. By making our voices heard - calling our councillors, writing to the media, making deputations, and setting up all sorts of networks, we are making a difference. It speaks to the power of the people, and the importance of taking a stand for justice.

See more great pictures on Rabble here.

I have one caveat: Many proposed cuts are being deferred to November, and some are simply being pushed down to be decided by city agencies that are already charged with lowering costs by 10%.  Stay vigilant!

And I have one wish: If our country took the same stand, in the same numbers, against the Tar Sands and our national failure to act on climate change, we would be in a much more environmentally and economically progressive position now. See updates from the inspiring Ottawa sit-in, also on Sept. 26th, here.

Fiscal Responsibility

Last night I volunteered at Toronto Environmental Alliance's phone bank to encourage people to contact their councillor if they oppose cuts to environmental programmes. The majority of people I spoke to were opposed to cuts to programmes that sustain our environment, economy and health! I wasn't sure if I would get through my whole list, but everytime I reached someone who offered to phone their councillor before I even finished my pitch, I felt re-energized.

But I also encountered a few people who insisted that cuts are necessary, and while sad to see them happen, were resigned to it. And this morning, I listened to executive committee member councillor Jaye Robinson on CBC talking of fiscal responsibility. (But she also spoke against the new plan for the waterfront! Hooray!) The more I read and think about the systems that connect the local and national economy with the local and national environments, the more I wonder whether calling for cuts to city services reflects an understanding of true fiscal responsibility.

As much as we like to imagine otherwise, everything, including all things fiscal, depends on the environment. To make this connection obvious to people, sometimes environmental economists look at ecosystem services - a way of quantifying the economic benefit (to say nothing of more ephemeral benefits) of the environment.

In Toronto, our green canopy of trees, managed by Parks and Recreation with specific support and planning from Toronto Environment Office, provides ecosystem services that keep our air clean and that sequester carbon. Without continued planting, pruning, and monitoring of pests, the green canopy is at risk. Toronto Parks and Recreation's goal is to double the green cover from 17% to at least 30% in the coming years. This is a significantly investment in climate change mitigation, reduction of water runoff, and promotion of health.

The GTA's Green Belt provides tremendous ecosystem services through its undeveloped wetlands and forests and agricultural lands. In fact, just the agricultural lands, mainly family owned farms, contribute $326 million per year in climate regulation through carbon storage, habitat for pollinators, control of soil erosion, etc. These family farms depend on a local market, and that means that city programmes like Live Green that promote local food consumption, and affordable farmers' market fees, are essential to maintaining these farms.

Although it might not be immediately visible, spending money on City programmes and services that support ecosystem services is part of fiscal responsibility.

Is this Prosperity?

CBC Radio has been doing a special series this week to honour 40 years of Conservative government in Alberta. I was struck by one of their speakers who said that Albertans are not Conservative because they’re prosperous, rather they’re prosperous because they’re Conservative.

NO! Alberta’s government deserves no credit for the province’s prosperity, except to the extent that they’ve ignored environmental and national well-being to invest in the tar sands. The tar sands, not the Conservative government, are the source of Alberta’s short term prosperity.

Meanwhile, the rest of Canada’s economy has been hollowed out by the high Petro dollar; our opportunity to develop economically and environmentally sustainable infrastructure and a national energy policy has been all but lost; the local environment, forests, and water systems, and the health of many citizens, have been severely damaged; … tons of carbon have been pumped into the atmosphere – just in extracting the oil, that figure says nothing about the carbon emissions when the oil is used for energy, whether in Canada, the U.S., or China. For more on the devastation the tar sands have wrought on our ECONOMY as well as the environment, see James Laxer’s article, as well as the most current issue of Alternatives Journal, "The Power and the Glory", and Oil Sands Truth.

An oil industry executive spoke on CBC about how the industry is working to reduce the local environmental impact. To the extent that this is even possible, it has nothing to do with the real problem – nationally and globally we cannot afford to burn fossil fuels and emit carbon into the atmosphere. As long as we continue to do so, one province’s so-called prosperity comes at the extent of everyone else’s wellbeing, including the next generations of Albertans. 

If you oppose the continued tar sands development, and subsidies and tax breaks for the tar sands, let your MP know, and join with activists and citizens on September 24 in Toronto (and around the world), on September 26 in Ottawa (if you're not busy at the Stop the Cuts rally in Toronto)!

And to see what fossil fuel prosperity is really costing the world, tune in to 24 Hours of Reality on September 14th and 15th - starts tonight!

Quality of Life - Stop the Cuts!

On Saturday I participated in the Stop the Cuts meeting at Dufferin Grove. About 600 people from many ridings, cultures, and income groups participated in this meeting to develop a position statement on cuts to city services, and to plan actions to protect our services and our city. In itself, the meeting was impressive - 600 people actually meeting and participating in decisions over four hours, outside, in a friendly drop-in atmosphere - through a remarkably well-organized series of breakout sessions, musical interludes, and report backs. The declaration is available on Stop the Cuts' website.


The big day of action is on September 26, the first day of council meetings to decide on cuts (and unfortunately, the same day as the Tar Sands action in Ottawa). The most important thing we can do leading up to that day is build awareness of what these cuts mean for people - write letters to the Editor, do the social media thing, and talk to your friends. Some of us live in ridings where the councillor can be counted on to vote to preserve services, and others the opposite. Those who live in the many ridings with a mighty middle councillor have a lot of potential power - phone calls, emails, and visits to these councillors can really make a difference.


Although I sometimes find Now Magazine's Rob Ford-related coverage antagonistic to the extreme, Adam Giambrone's recent article is a well-balanced and clear explanation of the current fiscal and political situation in Toronto, and what the city needs - namely, increase property taxes as previous administrations have done every year: Ford's Fake Fiscal Crisis.


I have been reading Richard Heinberg's brilliant but heavy The End of Growth, which argues essentially that economists have ignored for generations the environmental limits to growth - that ultimately we will simply have exhausted most of the resources on which economic growth depends - in fact, many resources have already peaked, and others will soon. Yet he argues that if we plan carefully, the end of growth doesn't have to mean the end of improvements to quality of life.


In this context, it's especially important to look at how city services help to build a city that is resilient and that supports quality of life for everyone,  especially the most vulnerable - that means environment and food programmes that promote local, affordable food (LiveGreen and the Toronto Environment Office); libraries where people can meet, talk, and learn, without having to buy anything!; parks for enjoyment, sanity, air quality, and much more; grants for art and community programmes; adequate childcare; and affordable housing.


Let's look also to people who work for the city - more than 17,000 of whom may be laid off or forced to take an buyout package that is unfair to anyone who has worked for less than 35 years. The fact is that there is no gravy; the secretary's secretary's secretary is a myth! People who work for the city are doing jobs that need to be done. And adding to the ranks of the unemployed will do nothing to help our quality of life.


Let's look to the suburbs - not to find a place to lay blame, but to make sure that the majority of Toronto's population enjoys the same services and quality of life as people living in the city centre.


Let's look to the province (and vote wisely on October 6, please!) and the federal government, to make sure that they are providing adequate transfer payments to cities like Toronto.


Let's look to each other, to our neighbours and friends and family, and let's get creative. Quality of life in the coming years will have more to do with healthy food, healthy spaces, and healthy communities than with high-tech gadgets, conspicuous consumption, or waterfront ferris wheels.

Voices of Transformation

Well, it's day 3 of Not-Back to School, and I'm still happy!

I've had time to attend Food Forward's inspiring Sprouts to Shoots workshop on food advocacy on the beautiful Big Carrot roof. I'm much more aware of the voices of power and disempowerment around me, and of how ( I hope! ) to help reclaim our power and our rights to healthy local food that supports families, farmers, and the planet!

I've had time to start reading Richard Heinberg's The End of Growth, on economy, environment and peak everything. (Also the new Elizabeth Hay book, curiously called Alone in the Classroom, admittedly a much easier read.)

I've walked and walked in the suddenly fall weather. I've had time to bake deliciously seasonal apple peach muffins.

I've updated my calendar with lots of important events - people reclaiming our voices - here are just two:

Stop the Cuts! at Dufferin Grove Park, Saturday Sept. 10, 1-4 pm

Climate Reality Project online, Wed Sept. 14 to Thurs. Sept. 15

Environmental Economics

Reading responses to an article on the tar sands, I am surprised once again by the number of people who believe that our economy depends on the tar sands, and more broadly that economic wellbeing and environmental wellbeing are inherently at odds. I propose the opposite - that except for perhaps the very, very short term due to the costs of transitioning; or if you define the economy by how many bonuses Wall Street types receive, rather than by whether people have jobs, food, homes, health, and time to spend with their loved ones - what's good for the environment is good for the economy, and good for people.

Mark your calendars - September 26

Naomi Klein was arrested today in the peaceful Washington Keystone XL tarsands pipeline protests. See Toronto Star article! I am impressed by the tenacity and commitment of so many high-profile and low-profile Canadian and American citizens in Washington. Mark your calendars for September 26 in Ottawa - hopefully it won't be too late. A number of high-profile citizens and organizations including the Council of Canadians, the Indigenous Environmental Network, and Greenpeace Canada, are calling on Canada and the U.S. to stop the tar sands - specifically, for Obama NOT to approve the Keystone XL pipeline - and keep the carbon in the ground! They are issuing a call for a peaceful, very well-behaved, all ages, sit-in on September 26 in Ottawa.
Council of Canadians invitation to Ottawa Sit-in