Comrade Miller's Green Dreams

Painting the city green won't hide the red. The red of his political leanings or the red ink of the city budget.

Taxpayers may get hot under the collar over Toronto's plans to fight global warming
By SUE-ANN LEVY

When the NDP brown-nosers on Toronto's parks and environment committee meet this morning, they'll deal with yet another dreadfully thin list of items dedicated in the main to Mayor David Miller's green agenda.

If history repeats itself, they'll talk a blue streak about their lofty climate change plans, all the while ignoring that the city is in the red and that the idea of more fees and tolls -- oops, I mean revenue tools -- to pay for their green dreams, might just make taxpayers turn white.

Lawson Oates, director of the $2.5-million Toronto Environment Office, told me yesterday a special meeting of the parks and environment committee will be held June 18 to deal with public deputations on the actual climate action plan -- which will be released around June 11.

Asked if there will be costs attached to that report, he said there will be funding implications and some funding sources identified. Individual climate change teams attached to particular sectors (like transportation), will look at investment from the private sector to reach their greenhouse gas emission reduction targets.

Rod Muir of Waste Diversion Ontario was one of 220 people who attended the Climate Change Forum (a consultation to help develop the action plan) on April 29. That consultation effort was budgeted at $80,000 but may end up costing closer to $50,000 because fewer attended than anticipated.

Muir said there was too little information provided and too much "blue skying", as has been the pattern at this socialist City Hall. "It's a great substitute for action," he said.

Muir added that the "roundtable" consultation format struck him as a "divide and conquer" approach, instead of one which would inspire healthy debate. He also noticed that Gord Perks, council's self-professed leading environmentalist, was there, but spoke to no one at the tables.

Perks said he went around beforehand at the open house and talked to folks. "I knew about half the people there personally," he said. "When you've done this for 25 years, you get to know people."

Don't get me wrong. Climate change is a serious issue and we should all be doing our part -- like leaving our cars in the garage, taking public transit and cutting back on our energy consumption at home.

LOFTY GOALS

But my perspective on the mayor's climate change plan is coloured by the fact there seems to be little grey matter around City Hall when it comes to considering the cost or practicality of the lofty green goals.

If Toronto had its costs under control, if there was no infrastructure backlog, if Toronto's downtown streets were free of litter and the homeless (both of which were evident this past weekend) then, perhaps, Miller and his crew would have the luxury of exploring grandiose environmental plans.

I can't help but wonder if the mayor is doing his best Robert Kennedy Jr. impersonation because the issue is trendy and it distracts from the city's most pressing problems.

Besides, as they've done on other files, Miller and his cheerleaders seem to be turning their climate change effort into yet another Hollywood production requiring endless consultations, multi-phase action plans with high-falutin' terms and a cast of thousands.

It's also spawned spinoff efforts like the "Sustainability Charette" (a glorified term for meeting) held last week to look at making City Hall a "showcase" for energy efficiency (not to be confused with cost efficiency).

Deputy Mayor Joe Pantalone, who welcomed the 70-odd participants, couldn't say what the costs will be. "There will be some costs," he acknowledged. "I don't know how much, exactly."

Added Perks yesterday: "Torontonians are ready for bold action in a wide range of areas ... people are ready to throw the kitchen sink at this problem."

The kitchen sink? No wonder I'm skeptical. I can't help but think Miller's grandiose green plans will be washed down the drain of that sink, along with all the dough wasted on his pipe dreams.