On May 31, 2016, Environmental Commissioner Dianne Saxe released her first report: Conservation: Let's Get Serious. The Commissioner publishes such reports as part of her mandate under the Environmental Bill of Rights, 1993. She has three main recommendations in this year's conservation report.
The three recommendations are,
- All public bodies in Ontario should get serious about a "cleaner, leaner, greener" approach to energy, especially reducing the use of fossil fuels.
- Ontario should adopt formal targets for reducing fossil fuel consumption.
- Public bodies should be accountable to the public for the energy they use.
As Dr. Saxe commented, Ontario currently has a "lopsided" energy conservation strategy, which targets electricity conservation, but does not address the use of fossil fuels. More than 80 per cent of the province's energy needs are met through fossil fuels, while conservation efforts are targeted at electricity, the "smallest and cleanest of our major energy sources."
A key way to manage transportation fuel consumption is related to how our communities are built: making more complete communities allows for the densities needed to ensure efficient transit. The Commissioner suggests that transit vehicles be given priority on key arterials and on highways. She also recommends that the province support the rapid growth of low carbon transportation vehicles and fuels, including electrification. Dr. Saxe noted that the province has failed to meet its own promise to buy 500 electric vehicles, commenting, "[s]o far they're at 70 and 14 of those are essentially golf carts."
One other key recommendation of the Commissioner is that the Minister of Finance should redirect tax breaks from supporting fossil fuel consumption to activities that contribute to the public good. The report describes these tax breaks, under international definitions, as fossil fuel subsidies.
As we reported on May 16, 2016, the Province recently released updated land-use plans for comment which were specifically revised to include climate change policies and to establish more aggressive density and intensification targets.
In addition, the province today released its climate change plan. In another blog, we will explore how, if at all, that plan addresses some of the issues raised by Commissioner Saxe.
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