Thread by @urbanenergyplan

While it's true that the Ford government has no climate action plan and is providing next to no support for municipal action, I think there is a lot more that the Mayors and Councillors quoted here can do on their own. 🧵1/9

https://twitter.com/fatimabsyed/status/1561713086083596290

On new development specifically, municipalities can "compel sustainability in [private] buildings". Toronto has the Toronto Green Standard, which we apply using Site Plan Control, through authority in the Planning Act and City of Toronto Act (COTA). 2/9 taf.ca/green-developm…

All Ontario municipalities have the same authorities as Toronto (through the Municipal Act), which is how Whitby developed their green building standard. whitby.ca/en/work/whitby… Ottawa is next and others are currently working on their own. 3/9

OBC may be the better route, but it's not the only one. Neither is Site Plan Control for that matter. COTA and Municipal Act permit municipalities to pass by-laws "respecting climate change". It's a broad authority, and therefore a high legal bar, but an option nonetheless. 4/9

Political will is key. Former Mayor @iamdavidmiller pushed for the TGS. Over the last 10+ years it has accelerated market transformation, helped nudge the OBC to include higher performance requirements, and it's one of our core #TransformTO policies. 5/9 toronto.ca/city-governmen…

We hear concerns about the costs of these requirements, so we offer incentives in the form of development charge refunds (which we recently increased btw). Giving up money is also a political challenge, but DC refunds are also not the only tool. 6/9

https://twitter.com/urbanenergyplan/status/1559626142797250560?s=20&t=kzW1oPU7blJvy9vnvvNchQ

Ultimately, the key is political will. This is especially true given that the most difficult and important policies lie ahead of us. What will we do about existing buildings? Natural gas? Electricity supply? Will we finally test our broad climate authorities? 7/9

All of this would probably easier and have a greater impact with provincial support, but that's not available right now. We'll continue to advocate for that, but for now I'll take any climate action we can get. We simply can't afford to wait. 8/9

And of course always read @fatimabsyed, who (along with the rest of @thenarwhalca team) is doing essential work covering climate issues in Ontario. 9/9