On December 1st 2015, Franz Hartmann, TEA's Executive Director, delivered a deputation at City Hall to Major John Tory about the Right to a Healthy Environment.

Rather than support the Polluter Pays recommendation put forward by Budget Committee last week, which would save water ratepayers $1.6 Million per year, Mayor Tory’s Executive Committee decided to delay it for the second year in a row.

Dear Mayor John Tory: Thank you for agreeing to go to the 2015 Paris Climate Conference (COP 21). Your presence will send a strong signal to world leaders, our new Prime Minister, our Premier and concerned people everywhere, that Toronto wants to be part of the solution to the biggest economic, social and environmental crisis facing the planet.

This Friday, Toronto's Budget Committee will debate whether or not polluting companies should pay their fair share of water pollution clean up costs in Toronto. Read TEA's open letter to the Committee urging action so polluters pay, not us.

TEA has written an open letter to Toronto's Budget Committee urging them to support our Polluter Pays motion so that companies who send polluted water down the sewers finally pay the full cost of cleaning it up. Why should ratepayers like us pay for their $1.6 Million discount each year?

At a Council Meeting last week, Councillors approved the next phase of the Long Term Waste Management Strategy development. Several Councillors used TEA’s materials and messages to call for reducing and recycling more waste.

This week, Councillors are voting on the framework and options consultants will use to draft a long term waste strategy for Toronto. The strategy will come to the public in early 2016.

Last Thursday’s close Council vote on the east Gardiner’s future was disappointing. There is one silver lining to this bad decision: Mayor Tory and the 23 Councillors who voted with him were not afraid to invest in public infrastructure.

The City wants to hear from you on the Long Term Waste Plan this summer via an online survey that will close on July 24. You don't have to be an expert, and your opinion matters!

Next week Toronto City Council decides what to do with the Gardiner Expressway. You can help shape the outcome.