Sierra Club Ontario Deputation to the City of Toronto Parks and Environment Committee

A recent report by KPMG has suggested that the City of Toronto should eliminate the Toronto Environment Office. Read the letter below by the SCO director, Dan McDermott to the City’s Parks and Environment Committee on why this is unacceptable.

SIERRA CLUB ONTARIO DEPUTATION TO THE CITY OF TORONTO PARKS AND ENVIRONMENT COMMITTEE

Re: THE TORONTO ENVIRONMENT OFFICE

It has been said that a cynic knows the cost of everything and the value of nothing. The KPMG recommendation that the City of Toronto eliminate the Toronto Environment Office fails to acknowledge the important work of the TEO and the Office’s key role in the City of Toronto’s earned status as an environmental leader and a Green City. Sierra Club Ontario recommends that the Parks and Environment Committee ignore the unsupported and cynical advice of KPMG and continue to support the Toronto Environment Office and the body of work that has made Toronto a Green Leader among Canadian municipalities.

Sierra Club asks the Parks and Environment Committee to review the solid body of environmental accomplishment that is the legacy of the City of Toronto’s environmental commitment, hard work and vision over the last several years. We ask that you particularly note the role of the TEO in the coordination of the City’s environmental program and mission. Special attention should be paid to the role played by the TEO as an animator and support base for community grassroots environmental action. This accomplishment elevates TEO well beyond the function of City of Toronto’s environmental office to its reality as an agency that connects with the aspiration of Torontonians to play a direct and hands-on role in the environmental sustainability of this City which is our home.

We ask the Parks and Environment Committee to be mindful of the fact that the crisis of climate change is happening now. The City of Toronto and the Toronto Environment Office have provided hope, leadership and tangible achievements in the face of this global challenge that affects us all. The many environmental accomplishments that are the recent legacy of the TEO must continue and not be abandoned.

Sierra Club Ontario submits that you, the members of the City of Toronto Parks and Environment Committee, are perched on a historic precipice. Your continued support of the existence and work of the Toronto Environment Office will be honoured by generations to come. Your failure to do so will earn you shame.