City Council’s most recent meeting was a heated debate on priorities for the 2017 City Budget and resulted in a mixed bag of wins and losses for climate action.
With too many questions unanswered, City Council voted against a plan to move forward with contracting out waste collection in Scarborough. One of the key questions that TEA brought to Council's attention is why waste diversion (recycling and composting) rates* are worse in districts served by private collectors.
The first Council meeting of 2017 was only a day long, a rarity at City Hall! One of the most important environmental issues they debated was waste collection service in Scarborough. Council also discussed trees, cycling, and how new legal powers might improve waste diversion in Toronto. Here’s what happened.
TEA said a heartfelt goodbye to two departing board members and hello to three new members at this year’s annual general meeting.
After reviewing over 700 requests to remove lands across the Golden Horseshoe, the Province announced it will not shrink Ontario’s Greenbelt.
TEA's Waste Campaigner Emily Alfred addressed the Public Works and Infrastructure Committee about the future of curbside waste collection east of Yonge and highlighted the stark difference between Etobicoke and Scarborough's waste diversion rates.
To ensure Toronto’s new climate change plan succeeds, City Council must invest $1.6 million in the 2017 Budget, an amount far less than the costs of inaction. This was the key message delivered by TEA’s Executive Director delivered to the City’s Budget Committee.
Meet Ben: one of TEA's dedicated canvassers. Ben explains why he loves working for TEA and gives us an inside scoop on canvassing in the City of Toronto.
TEA’s Executive Director, Franz Hartmann, reflects on the life and legacy of lifelong environmentalist Dan McDermott who died on Wednesday, January 4th.
At the last City Council meeting of 2016, Councillors quietly adopted a new climate action plan for our city. This important plan outlines the short-term strategies for achieving an emissions reduction target of 30% by 2020. However, without any new funds to support the action plan we are unlikely to meet our targets.
As 2016 comes to an end and City Council’s four year term hits its halfway point, there’s a lot of attention on City Hall and budget expectations are high. December’s Council meeting stretched for three long days and covered a wide range of environmental issues from road tolls to waste bin fees, public hydro victories to unfunded climate strategies. Here’s what happened.
Every year, TEA supporters come together to bare witness to the horrors that the advertising industry inflicts on the public, trying to convince them that companies have the environment’s best interest in mind.
TEA partnered with the City of Toronto's Solid Waste staff to host three tours of multi-residential buildings that are leading the way in waste diversion.
On Wednesday, City Council voted to keep Toronto Hydro public. This is a huge victory for Torontonians and would likely not have happened without the work done by the Our Hydro coalition.
Today, TEA and some of our allies (including the Pembina Institute, the David Suzuki Foundation, the Registered Nurses' Association of Ontario, the City Building Institute, Ryerson University and Evergreen) sent a letter to Mayor Tory and City Council urging them to adopt the revenue tools recommended by the City Manager.
Road tolls, in principle, should be a good thing for the environment - if the money collected goes towards supporting environmental programs. But decisions made by the Mayor’s Executive Committee on December 1 pretty well guarantee this won’t happen.
Mayor Tory and Toronto City Council are now exactly halfway through their four-year term. TEA has been monitoring the votes they cast and the decisions they made and we’re launching a report that evaluates City Council’s first two years on four key issue areas: climate change, transportation, toxics, and waste.
For more than 6 years, TEA has been calling on City Council to invest in important environmental services. Before the last municipal election in 2014, we made it clear new revenues are necessary if we hope to get Toronto ready for climate change.
On Monday evening, more than 150 concerned residents and TEA supporters flooded into a Committee Room at City Hall to show support for Toronto’s new climate action plan. Many people were forced to stand as the room was at capacity, and extra chairs had to be brought in to accommodate everyone.
EcoBunk's silent auction is always filled with fantastic donations from our sponsors and this year is no different. This is just a very small sample of what EcoBunk 2016 has to offer.