TORONTO – Mayor John Tory has returned from the Paris climate summit and says Toronto’s environmentally progressive reputation has suffered in recent years and that it’s time to “get back to work.”
“The city of Toronto was once itself recognized as being in the front ranks of cities when it came to environmental issues, but we stepped out of leadership ranks in the last four years and I think our progress has suffered as a result,” Tory said.
“I think it is now time to get back to work.”
READ MORE: Tory visiting Paris for climate change summit next week
Tory spoke at the Liberty Village Business Improvement Area on Monday and put forward initiatives to help push Toronto to be a more environmentally conscious city, one of which includes implementing a more efficient commuter congestion plan.
“The Liberty Village BIA has been successful in encouraging its members and their employees to commute smarter,” he said.
Now, more than 25 per cent of Liberty Village employees walk or cycle to work, which according to Tory, is up from 14 per cent in 2012.
“That’s contributed to by the fact that there are bike racks and bike lockers and all kinds of things like that that help make it more attractive for people to make that choice,” he said.
Tory also made mention of working with the city to quickly convert lighting in city buildings to energy-efficient LED lights.
“In cities like Los Angeles and Sydney, they’ve done it almost across the board and they have in so doing substantially reduced their carbon footprint and they are saving on an annual basis over and over again hundreds of thousands of dollars,” Tory said, adding they will be transitioning city arenas to LED lights in 2016.
“I will be asking city officials to move up the scheduled transition for lighting in places like swimming pools and other public buildings which were scheduled for future years.”
Another initiative would see the possible phasing out of extra large garbage bins to reduce waste in landfills.
“Based on all the surveys that have been taken … literally 77 per cent of what we find in those extra large bins are things that should be recycled,” Tory said.
“I think that unfortunately, people who have them are treating them as some sort of a licence … to say we are not going to pay attention to what is being recycled.”
Tory added excessive waste carries a huge cost for the city.
“There are houses … where people will tell me they have a family and they can make do with a small or medium size bin and don’t even fill that every week,” he said. “I just think it’s a matter of determination and changing behaviour.”
The mayor said he will be meeting with Amarjeet Sohi, Canada’s Minister of Infrastructure and Communities, next week to discuss further action.
“The best way for the federal government to honour that focus is to invest seriously in Toronto’s priority areas in housing and transit,” the mayor said.
The mayor led a delegation to Paris for the climate change summit which included Deputy Mayor Pam McConnell, Tory’s Chief of Staff Christopher Eby and the City’s Director of Environment and Energy Jim Baxter.
Tory said he will be meeting with Amarjeet Sohi, Canada’s Minister of Infrastructure and Communities, next week.
“The best way for the federal government to honour that focus is to invest seriously in Toronto’s priority areas in housing and transit,” the mayor said.
The conference had many attendees that include former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, former U.S. President Bill Clinton, Mayor of Chicago Rahm Emmanuel and Paris Mayor Ann Hadalgo.
Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson and Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre also attended the summit.
While in Paris, Tory also paid his respects t0 the victims of the recent terror attacks at The Bataclan.
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