Reading the Environmental Commissioner’s 2014 report on Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions is a very sobering task: Ontario’s actions have been so inadequate. Ontario was once so courageous and innovative: since 1990 GHG emissions from our electricity grid have gone down 43%, industry’s emissions have dropped 21%. Conversely transportation has gone up 24% and it is now the largest source of GHG (34% in 2012) with all trends showing an increase. How is it that we went through a provincial election and reducing GHG was not one of the big issues debated with substance?

The report has triggered for me a couple thoughts of relevance for King Township.

• I want to know the status of the flood plain mapping in our watersheds.

As Mr. Miller reviews, the Conservation Authority (CA) and many individual CA’s have been flagging that much of the mapping is out of date. Given that we have numerous water courses traversing King and that we are in two watersheds that mapping is very important. The more extreme weather events represent new vulnerabilities in terms of safety of life and property.

• Inadequate public transit is a critical.

We need to see Bus Route 61 (goes through our villages to meet the morning and afternoon GO trains) grow as the Province delivers on its commitment to increase GO train service. And in fact, as there is GO bus service throughout the day (stops at Hwy 9/400 and goes to Yorkdale) there should be local buses all day! It is frustrating to see new subdivisions being built based on the status quo of virtually no public transit; 3 car garages and more are now the standard and new residents will establish the habit of using their car to meet any transport need. A modest compensation would be insisting that all new residential construction feature larger diameter conduits and adequate capacity in the electrical panel so that when the home owner does decide to purchase an electrical vehicle they can easily install repaid recharging infrastructure. (To fully recharge a 20kW battery on a 120-volt 16-amp takes >10 hours whereas a 240-volt, 32-amp takes < 3 hours.)

• Our new residential subdivisions are being built with more energy efficient features.

Unfortunately as Mr. Miller reviews, the building code amendments do not come into full force until 2017. Efforts by our Sustainability Committee and the Township Staff to encourage builders to go beyond current legal requirements needs to continue.

• When we make our 2015 budget we need to include funding and resources to start implementation of our energy conservation and management plan for our more than 20 buildings and facilities.

Our current consumption of energy and a plan for conservation was presented to Council in May; now we have to start implementing it.

• For our 2015 budget I will once again ask for funds and resources to pilot a program to incent property owners to retrofit current structures to achieve a higher level of energy efficiency.

In 2012 Ministry of Municipal Affairs & Housing approved a regulatory change to explicitly allow municipalities to use local improvement charges (LICs) to finance energy efficiency improvements on private property. Essentially, a LIC is a loan made by a municipality to a building owner (home or commercial) that is recovered through the property tax system. Attaching the lien to the building as opposed to the property owner means that realizing payout of the investment does not require the property owner to stay there until it has been paid off. Another possible attraction is that municipality may be able to offer financing through the LIC at a lower interest as the municipality is protected from default on the loan.

Every level of government has a role in reducing GHG.