<html> <div align="center"> 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 </div> 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 <a href="http://www.greenontario.org/caction/comman.html" eudora="autourl">http://www.greenontario.org/caction/comman.html</a>).  Also see the Ontario Healthy Communities Association <a href="http://www.healthycommunities.on.ca/ohcc.htm" eudora="autourl">http://www.healthycommunities.on.ca/ohcc.htm</a> and the Green Communities Association <a href="http://www.gca.ca/" eudora="autourl">http://www.gca.ca</a>. 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 <a href="http://www.greenontario.org/solutions/energyplan.html" eudora="autourl">http://www.greenontario.org/solutions/energyplan.html</a>.  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 <a href="http://www.ccsd.ca/pubs/2003/fm/" eudora="autourl">http://www.ccsd.ca/pubs/2003/fm/</a> Next Issue… The Local Picture… rebuilding the Conservation Council of Ontario.  <div>***************************</div> <div>Promoting conservation leadership, cooperation, and action for over 50 years</div> <div>The Conservation Council of Ontario</div> <div>43 Sorauren Avenue, Toronto, Ontario M6R 2C8</div> <div>(416) 533-1635</div> <div><a href="http://www.greenontario.org/" EUDORA=AUTOURL>www.greenontario.org</a> </div> <div>Chris Winter, Executive Director</div> </html>