Toronto's huge budget gap falls short of 2040 climate goals

An AC$1.8 billion budget gap undermines the City of Toronto's plan to reduce climate pollution to net zero by 2040.

“It looks like we're going in the worst direction, we're going to have worse emissions than business as usual,” Ward 11 Coun. This was reported by Diane Sachs to the Toronto Star. “It should be scary — I don't know how much evidence people have that they want us to face a climate crisis that's really damaging to our health and our economy.”

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After Toronto's carbon budget baseline showed that it fell short of the goals in the city's TransformTO emissions reduction plan, Sacks used the local budget debate to ask if each city department's climate efforts are on track. “Bureaucrat after bureaucrat, including schools, forestry and recreation, community and social services and infrastructure services, have defended and said no to spending requests during a historic budget crisis,” the Star newspaper reported.

Sacks, Ontario's former environmental commissioner, acknowledged that meeting the goals won't be easy, as transit ridership still lags behind pre-pandemic levels, resulting in increased air emissions and budget constraints that make it difficult to invest in such programs today. provides economies of scale over time. “I know every district in the city could use more money,” he told the Star. “But the climate emergency dominates the lives of all young people today. It complicates everything we're trying to do.”

At Sacks' request, city staff compiled a list of “quick, low-cost and transformative” steps consultants could take to meet TransformTO's goals. They included $10 million in energy efficiency credits for middle-income households and $900,000 for new emissions standards for Toronto buildings. The options fit three climate priorities the Atmospheric Foundation proposed last May as a climate agenda that every mayoral re-election candidate should adopt. This list included:

• Strict building performance standards to support the City's net-zero existing buildings strategy;

• Deep energy upgrades to city properties to “help create critical mass for Toronto's green building sector and deliver safe, healthy housing for the households that need it most”;

• Access to reliable, affordable transit.

But Sacks' measures, like any reference to climate change, were left out of the budget committee's set of recommendations to Mayor Olivia Chow.

Budget Committee Chair Shelley Carroll told the Star that climate is “already built into this budget,” with more than $272 million invested. “A climate lens across all costs will increase spending across all divisions,” he said in an email.

Sarah Buchanan, director of campaigns for the Toronto Environmental Alliance, said it was “refreshing” to see the city acknowledge the gap in climate investment that has been evident for some time. “The cat is now out of the bag due to years of long-term disinvestment in the city's climate goals and core commitments to the climate plan.”

He said the city can achieve its 2040 goal with smart investments and support from the federal and provincial governments. “It seems like the ship is turning a little bit, because with relatively little money in this budget, at least there's a foundation for the future.”

Some of that prospect is addressed in a separate Toronto Star post this week, in which columnist Andrew Phillips talks about Chow's recent, successful budget negotiations with the provincial and federal governments. Five months after taking office, he negotiated the New Deal for Toronto (capital letters and all, Phillips writes), which saved the city billions of dollars by handing over responsibility for the Gardiner Expressway and Don Valley Park to the province, spending about $1 billion. another $1.2 billion for housing and new subway cars, transit and housing.

He then pressured Ottawa into what was soon to be a $162 million bid to cover the cost of housing for refugee claimants in Toronto. “Chow cleverly placed federal land and forced them to collect money for the costs they imposed on the city,” wrote a Star columnist.

The city still faces a 9.5% tax increase this year, and there is little hope for a fully funded climate plan this year. But Chow still “took a master class in speaking well, acting tough, playing it smart and getting results,” Phillips says. “Mayor Chow may have only held low pair at the federal-provincial-municipal poker table. But as any poker player knows, it's not so much about the cards as how you play them. And Chow played his hand like a Vegas veteran.”