Today, the City of Toronto released their 2018 Preliminary Operating Budget which failed to include funding for a number of important programs and services. In fact, the preliminary budget entirely fails to fund the TransformTO climate change action plan for the City.

Less than a year after unanimously adopting the TransformTO plan, the Mayor and City Council have no plans to fund climate actions in the 2018 budget. This is part of an emerging pattern at Toronto City Council that continues to commit to bold new plans like the Poverty Reduction Strategy and TransformTO, without actually providing the funding to implement these plans.

“Ambitious strategies are worthless without the funding to make them a reality,” said Dusha Sritharan, Climate Change Campaigner with the Toronto Environmental Alliance.

At a time where cities around the world are stepping up to be leaders on climate change, Toronto is failing to meet its global commitments. For the second year in a row, City Council is proposing to delay funding the TransformTO plan fully. This will continue to jeopardize Toronto’s ability to meet its greenhouse gas reduction targets.

“Failing to fund and implement TransformTO will not only jeopardize our ability to respond to climate change but also our ability to address other priorities such as poverty reduction, job creation and improving the state of housing,” said Sritharan.

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Contact Dusha Sritharan, Climate Change Campaigner 

Toronto Environmental Alliance 

Email: [email protected]

Phone: 416-596-0660 (office), 416-473-7918 (cell)