City gets a C+ on smog report - Metro
November 1, 2007
By Staff
Budget crisis crippled Toronto’s green initiatives
Toronto earned a C+ on the annual Smog Report Card, a grade that would have been higher had the city’s fiscal crisis not stalled clean-air initiatives, says the Toronto Environmental Alliance.
The city, which received a C- rating from the group last year, was on track to get a B or B+ this year, largely on the strength of Mayor David Miller’s “Change is in the Air” plan to combat smog and climate change.
The $84-million report, released in June, calls for a 20 per cent reduction in locally generated smog pollutants by 2012, based on 2004 levels.
But the city’s financial crisis and subsequent cost-cutting “sucked the life” out of the plan, said the alliance’s executive director, Franz Hartmann.
bylaw falling behind
The plan, for instance, calls for a new “community-right-to-know” bylaw, requiring businesses to report their emissions. But cost-cutting measures restricted hiring experts to develop the bylaw.
torstar news service
http://metronews.ca/news/toronto/67261/city-gets-c-on-smog-report/