Mayoral candidates need to work harder on green plans: enviro group - InsideToronto
July 8, 2010
Mike Adler
InsideToronto
Torontonians want their next mayor to be green, and top contenders for the job aren't working hard enough at it, says the Toronto Environmental Alliance (TEA).
"Too many of them haven't done their environmental homework," executive director Franz Hartmann said as the city's leading green policy group released a mid-campaign report card Thursday.
Hartmann said TEA hopes to motivate the five leading candidates to commit on what it considers Toronto's six environmental priorities, adding he hopes each candidate gets an excellent grade in a final report in October.
For now, TEA gives its best marks to Joe Pantalone, but noted he "needs to speak up."
The group assigned its worst results to Rob Ford, who it says "shows little interest" in environmental issues so far.
Hartmann said he has no doubt Torontonians care - especially on a smoggy day.
"They know smog is killing people," he said.
TEA's priorities, which Hartmann described as "both doable and aggressive," include achieving 70-per-cent waste diversion (up from 50 per cent today) by 2012, building a strategy for completing the Transit City plan while having the province pay half the TTC's operating costs (instead of riders paying 70 per cent), and requiring the city to buy local green products.
The report card and details of the priority actions are at http://www.torontoenvironment.org
Another group, the Ontario Clean Air Alliance, published its own survey last month (www.cleanairalliance.org/toronto_mayoralty) showing candidates Pantalone, George Smitherman, Rocco Rossi and Sarah Thomson all support installing power plants using natural gas for both heat and electricity in Toronto's hospitals and multi-residential buildings.
As published at: http://www.insidetoronto.com/news/cityhall/article/845177--mayoral-candi...