[greenon-l] Restoring Ontario's Commitment to Conservation

[Conservation Council of Ontario]

Restoring Ontario's Commitment to Conservation
The newsletter of the Conservation Council of Ontario's e-newsletter
Please forward to your friends.

November 20, 2003
Chris Winter, Executive Director


In This Issue
The Big Picture:  restoring Ontario’s commitment to conservation.
Three Conservation Priorities: energy, garbage and sprawl
The NGO and Community role: public outreach and support services
Finding the Funds:  Raising $20 - 40 million for conservation



The Big Picture:  Restoring Ontario’s Commitment to Conservation.
After a decade of tax breaks and cuts in environmental funding, we are 
presented with an opportunity unlike any that we have seen over the past 
two decades.  Like the three curves of a “biorhythm” chart, all three 
levels of government are currently at a high level of environmental 
awareness and commitment.

Federally, the passion is climate change, and the need to convince people 
to conserve energy.
Provincially, the environment is one of the top five priorities for the new 
Liberal government.
Municipally, urban sprawl was a major concern and in some municipalities 
(such as Oakville) we saw smart growth activists elected to council.

All three levels of government see the need to engage the public in 
conservation solutions.  All three levels of government are prepared to 
devote funding to the solutions, even in a time of fiscal restraint. The 
municipal and provincial governments are brand new, and the federal 
government has a new leader, so all three levels are developing new 
initiatives.  And for the first time in ages, they are also talking of 
cooperation.

Now is not the time for complacency or even celebration.  On the contrary, 
now the real work must begins.  We have a very narrow window of opportunity 
to convince our governments that Ontario’s non-governmental organizations 
and community groups can help deliver conservation solutions to the 
public.  We have a narrow window to build an effective and united 
solutions-oriented conservation movement in Ontario.


Why We Need Conservation:  Three Conservation Priorities
Over the next four years, Ontario faces formidable environmental 
challenges, not the least of which are:
1.  Energy:  develop a secure, environmentally-sound and affordable 
electricity system (including the phase-out of coal-fired generation).
2.  Garbage: find viable solutions for garbage (including waste reduction 
and disposal).
3.  Sprawl:  replace urban sprawl with compact, livable communities 
(including natural areas and farmland protection, and accessible and 
affordable public transit).

Conservation  be it energy conservation, transportation alternatives, waste 
reduction, or natural areas and farmland stewardship  is an important part 
of the solution.  Conservation strategies that combine aggressive 
standards, economic instruments, and public outreach and support programs 
can assist Ontario in achieving up to a 20% reduction in energy consumption 
and over 50% in waste reduction.

Key to achieving these results is public outreach and support services, 
areas where Ontario’s non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and community 
groups excel.  We can play a vital and cost-efficient role in raising 
public awareness, encouraging conservation, and providing support services.

Three things need to happen:
1.  Organize Ontario’s communities
2.  Strengthen NGO expertise and outreach services
3.  Implement provincial campaigns on energy conservation and waste reduction

Currently,  Ontario’s NGOs are chronically underfunded and lack the 
capacity to deliver major programs.  Similarly, few of Ontario’s 
communities (including municipalities) are sufficiently organized to 
coordinate a community-level conservation campaign.

Our current estimate of the cost of implementing an effective conservation 
movement in Ontario is approximately $20 - 40 million per year.  This 
includes the cost of organizing Ontario’s communities to be able to deliver 
outreach and support programs as well as developing coordinated outreach 
campaigns involving NGOs, corporate leaders, and governments.

Ontario’s 446 municipalities as well as the major cultural communities need 
a little help in organizing if we are going to ask them to be part of a 
major public outreach campaign. Matching grants of up to $100,000 for 
municipalities and cultural communities will allow them to organize 
community networks, identify local funding partners, and develop action 
plans to reflect local needs and priorities.   The Conservation Council of 
Ontario has developed a low-cost model for community organizing (available 
at http://www.greenontario.org/caction/comman.html).  Also see the Ontario 
Healthy Communities Association 
http://www.healthycommunities.on.ca/ohcc.htm and the Green Communities 
Association http://www.gca.ca.

About $10 - 15 million is required annually for the development and 
execution of conservation outreach campaigns.  These campaigns will draw on 
and unite the efforts of the major environmental groups in Ontario.  There 
are already over a dozen organizations in Ontario that offer programs and 
services in energy conservation and transportation alternatives.  $2 - 5 
million would unite the best projects, ideas and services in a single 
outreach campaign and templates for community-based outreach projects.  An 
additional $10 million per year would support the implementation of these 
projects throughout Ontario’s municipal and cultural communities.

The result will be a vibrant conservation and environmental movement that 
will be engaged in community planning and that will contribute to meeting 
provincial conservation and waste reduction targets within four years.


Funding Conservation:
With a $5.6 billion deficit in Ontario, where will the money come from?
The $20 - 40 million per year to carry out this program is well in excess 
of available ministry budgets from the Ministries of Energy and 
Environment. Innovative funding solutions will need to be developed.   Two 
areas that need to be investigated are economic surcharges and cooperative 
funding.

Economic surcharges  we need to price key goods and services to promote 
conservation.  The electricity market is a prime example.  The Conservation 
Council recommends that a higher price be charged on electricity over a 
base conservation rate of consumption, and that these funds be earmarked 
for a provincial conservation and green energy fund.  About $500 million 
would be generated each year, more than enough to make conservation and 
alternative energy projects economically viable.  For details see 
http://www.greenontario.org/solutions/energyplan.html.  Similar pricing 
mechanisms can be established for waste reduction (through packaging 
charges and deposits), public transit (via the gas tax) and smart growth 
(through development charges).

Cooperative Funding  we believe the funding is out there, but it is spread 
thin in many sources each with its own criteria, process and requirements 
for profiling the granting agency.  Funding sources for conservation 
initiatives are possibly even more fractured than the organizations 
applying for grants.  We need better coordination and cooperation between 
the many government, foundation and corporate sources, in particular for 
key issues where cooperation is vital  such as energy conservation and 
waste reduction.  For further insight into recent trends in funding for the 
charitable sector, see Funding Matters by the Canadian Council on Social 
Development http://www.ccsd.ca/pubs/2003/fm/



Next Issue


The Local Picture
 rebuilding the Conservation Council of Ontario.

***************************
Promoting conservation leadership, cooperation, and action for over 50 years
The Conservation Council of Ontario
43 Sorauren Avenue, Toronto, Ontario M6R 2C8
(416) 533-1635
www.greenontario.org
Chris Winter, Executive Director
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