In my Undercover Era

I’d like to preface this post by saying I try my best to stay non-partisan and generally keep my political opinions private. So, when a friend asked whether or not I’d like to join them at a fundraising event for a municipal politician’s election campaign I immediately thought “absolutely not”. For some reason, I believed that attending any sort of political event would ban me from a future career with the civil service (even if I wasn’t necessarily supporting the candidate).

After chatting with my parents, I was quickly sent back to earth and realized nobody could care less if I listened to this person speak for 30 minutes with a couple of hors d’oeuvres and a glass of wine in hand. I would go undercover. To write the greatest blog post of all time for my Urban Policy class. Strictly business.

Being a fly on the wall was actually a very cool experience. I saw how the demographic of the event shaped the questions and conversations that occurred throughout the night. People’s policy interests were closely tied to their place of work, neighbourhood and way of life. In other words, everything we’ve spent the past year and a half talking about at Munk is totally true (who woulda thought).

After the question and answer period, I decided to ask this person about Toronto’s environmental policy plans, a topic that hadn’t yet come up throughout the evening. I specifically asked whether or not this candidate believed Toronto’s net zero strategy (TransformTO) was achievable. I also asked how they would ensure the city met its targets by 2040.

Take a second to guess their answer.

Okay.

You probably got it.

“…We need federal dollars!”

The candidate explained that climate change was a pressing issue on their agenda. They argued that the most important aspects of TransformTO were transit improvements (increases in public transportation and the transition to electric vehicles) and building retrofits. The city was doing okay in terms of transit plans, but the latter would likely need a heavy amount of federal support.

In 2018, 55% of Toronto’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions came from existing buildings. Retrofits are therefore, central to the city’s climate plan. These include smaller projects such as replacing windows and improving insulation as well as larger endeavours like reconfiguring entire buildings to run off renewable electricity. Retrofitting all of Toronto’s skyscrapers, schools, workspaces, apartments, single family homes etc. will take money. Tons of it.

The reality is, municipalities have limited capabilities when it comes to obtaining this money. The city’s revenue capacities are largely reliant on property taxes, a few rate based programs and some other smaller taxes. These are hard to raise and insufficient for the retrofit (and greater net zero) task at hand.

That leaves us with two options: the province and the feds. Given the current Ontario government’s mandate, money for climate change mitigation is unlikely to come from the province. The federal government seems to be more sympathetic to the environmental cause. The federal Minister of the Environment has even pledged that “building a cleaner, greener future will require a sustained and collaborative effort”. So, there’s hope, right?

Climate change is an issue that every municipality in Canada has to address. The federal and provincial governments can make promises with regards to GHG reductions, but these buildings, cars, and transit systems exist within cities and towns. Collaboration between governments shouldn’t just be wishful thinking. It’s necessary if Canada has any chance at achieving its climate goals at any level.