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Ford, Chow set to make joint transit-related announcement

Ford, Chow set to make joint transit-related announcement

CBC6 hours ago

Ford, Chow set to make joint transit-related announcement
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Premier Doug Ford and Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow are set to speak at 8:45 a.m. ET Tuesday. They will be joined by Ontario's ministers of transit and infrastructure.

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OCDSB to finalize $18.1M in budget cuts
OCDSB to finalize $18.1M in budget cuts

CBC

time37 minutes ago

  • CBC

OCDSB to finalize $18.1M in budget cuts

Ottawa's largest school board is expected to balance its $1.244-billion operating budget for the next school year by making $18.1 million in cuts. About $5 million in savings will come from special education, $6 million from administration and $4.2 million from teaching, Ottawa-Carleton District School Board (OCDSB) staff said. Another $3 million will be found in other areas over the course of the coming school year, such as vacant positions. At a special meeting Tuesday night, the board is expected to formalize a decision trustees made June 11 when they voted seven to two to support a series of staff recommendations aimed at avoiding a fifth deficit. Among the financial pressures facing the board are rising costs due to inflation, paying supply teachers as staff use sick leave, extra costs stemming from Workplace Safety and Insurance Board decisions, and a requirement to keep all schools open due to a moratorium on closures. Balancing the budget was "no small feat" and took months of work to find rational and reasonable reductions, chief financial officer Randy Gerrior told trustees last week. That's despite the Ministry of Education only publishing details of allocations to Ontario school boards on May 23, he said. The OCDSB didn't receive any significant new money for the coming year because the funding formula is based largely on the number of pupils and the board's enrolment has flatlined. It expects 51,071 elementary students next school year, plus 26,149 high school students. The OCDSB's budget has been created, debated and voted on as trustees and staff await the results of an investigation by PricewaterhouseCoopers. Education minister Paul Calandra assigned the company to scrutinize the OCDSB's finances because of its lack of reserves and repeated deficits. "The ministry is currently reviewing the report's findings and is in the process of considering next steps," wrote Emma Testani, press secretary to the education minister. 135 fewer full-time positions Next year, the OCDSB plans to spend $740.4 million, or 59.6 per cent of its operating budget, on instruction and $159.5 million, or 12.8 per cent, on instruction in special education. It's still spending $10 million more on special education than it receives. As for jobs, board expects to have 8,453 full-time positions next year, a reduction of 135 from what it had approved at budget time last year. It had already approved some job reductions in March to adhere to timelines in collective agreements. Classroom and resource teachers would drop by 64 positions compared to last year, for a total of 4,950. The board also sees employing 31 fewer kindergarten early childhood educators. Such positions are tied to enrolment. Gerrior's team recommended 20 fewer educational assistants compared to last year's budget, for a total of 853 staff to help students with special or complex needs. The centralized department that supports special education will also shed various jobs including a social worker, three psychologists and a couple of speech language pathologists. The summer learning program for students with developmental disabilities and autism would no longer be offered after this summer, despite an effort by trustee Lyra Evans to preserve it. The board will receive more money for student transportation, with planned spending of $56.5 million next school year. The province has committed to bridging a price increase for monthly OC Transpo passes, Gerrior added. Dealing with long-term issues Chair Lynn Scott credited OCDSB staff for spending months scrutinizing the finances to find savings through "things that are nice to have, but not required to have." Beyond that, she called for continuing efforts to explain to the Ontario government the flaws in its funding formula and its detrimental effect on students. As for the longer term, Gerrior said the board is dealing with its structural deficit by trying to make better use of its funds. The recent contentious reorganization of elementary schools will help, he said. The OCDSB anticipates presenting its next review — of its adult and continuing education programs — in the fall. To rebuild its reserves, which it used up during the pandemic, the board intends to use revenue from selling off surplus buildings, he explained. On June 11, after two nights of deliberations as committee of the whole, seven trustees voted in favour of the budget as staff had presented it: Lynn Scott, Julia Fortey, Donna Blackburn, Suzanne Nash, Jennifer Jennekens, Donna Dickson, and Matthew Lee. Trustees Lyra Evans and Cathryne Milburn opposed the budget. Justine Bell abstained from voting and Amanda Presley was absent. Nili Kaplan-Myrth was also counted as absent because her pending resignation must be formally approved at a meeting June 23.

From 'greenwashing' to 'green hushing' — companies complain new law stifles environmental efforts
From 'greenwashing' to 'green hushing' — companies complain new law stifles environmental efforts

CBC

time37 minutes ago

  • CBC

From 'greenwashing' to 'green hushing' — companies complain new law stifles environmental efforts

Some corporate leaders say new anti-greenwashing legislation has had the unintended effect of dissuading companies from taking climate action. But environmental organizations and others say that's a cop out. Bill C-59's changes to the Competition Act were meant to prevent companies from misrepresenting the environmental benefits of their products or practices — known as "greenwashing." The bill also gave the Competition Bureau more power to penalize companies that can't back up their claims with detailed evidence. But critics say requiring all such claims conform to "internationally recognized methodology" leaves too much room for interpretation and makes companies vulnerable to legal action. Michael McCain, the executive chair and former CEO of Maple Leaf Foods, calls this "green hushing." It's "the opposite of encouragement for companies to do the right thing," McCain told Laura Lynch, host of CBC Radio's What on Earth. The changes create so many "obstacles and consequences" to touting a company's environmental efforts, that the companies stop doing them. Royal Bank has "retired" its commitment to facilitate $500 billion in sustainable finance by this year, pointing to changes in the Competition Act. Likewise, the investment arm of the Canada Pension Plan dropped its promise to invest in line with Canada's target to reach net zero by 2050, because of "recent legal developments," said CEO John Graham. Tyson Dyck, a lawyer who consults on environmental and climate matters for corporate clients, including many in the energy sector, says clients across the country have been "very concerned" about the changes, which took effect last June. He says the business community expected clarity about how to make environmental or climate-related claims. Instead, they got "confusion," he said. "And I think they struggled interpreting the new provisions." But environmental groups say no one is forcing companies to talk about their climate efforts, and that corporations should behave sustainably because it's the right thing to do, not for the boost to public image. Matt Hulse, a lawyer with Ecojustice, an environmental law charity headquartered in Vancouver, says many companies complaining about the changes were previously alleged to be greenwashing. They "made ambitious claims around climate and environmental action and have been accused of not following through on those things," said Hulse. That suggests, to him, that the "legislation is actually working.' 'Unintended consequence' But McCain says businesses have a legitimate concern that the legislation isn't written effectively. "This is a case of very good intentions in the underlying policy with a very grossly negative unintended consequence, which by definition makes it bad policy." The problem, he said, is requiring a company's claims to be backed up by "internationally recognized methodologies." There aren't enough internationally recognized organizations or standards, he said, or they are not "scientifically credible, in our judgment." WATCH | 'Greenwashing' allegations against Lululemon: Lululemon under investigation for 'greenwashing' products 1 year ago Duration 1:57 Canada's Competition Bureau has launched an investigation of Lululemon over allegations of deceptive marketing and 'greenwashing' its products by misleading consumers about its environmental practices. What about the standards for measuring emissions in agriculture? And for carbon offsets? McCain says those don't recognize the use of offsets in a way that's viable for Maple Leaf Foods. "We achieve carbon neutrality," he said, but "there's no body today that we know of that would certify that." He says it's "patently unreasonable" to expect a company to spend tens of millions of dollars on environmental works "and not be able to shout from the mountaintop the good things that we're doing." Fair playing field Emilia Belliveau, energy transition program manager for the advocacy group Environmental Defence in Vancouver, says there was good reason for keeping the language in the act flexible — keeping the law itself flexible as best practices change across various industries. Also, holding companies to internationally recognized methodologies prevents them from doing their own analyses "that can skew the data," she said. "It creates a fair playing field across companies so that we're measuring the same things, and we're able to make sure that the quality of the data, the evidence that's being used as proof for these green claims, holds up to rigour." Former MP Charlie Angus worked on a number of green initiatives over the years, and voted in favour of the changes. He stands by them. "You can't sell a car and say it's the safest on the road when you know there's serious problems with it. You can't sell cigarettes and say, the way they used to, 'This is the lighter brand of cigarettes,' when all cigarettes make you sick," he said. The changes "make sure that when companies are talking about net zero and reducing emissions, that they actually were telling the truth and not lying." The Competition Bureau released its final guidance on the anti-greenwashing legislation on June 5, which both corporations and some environmental groups had hoped would provide more specifics. the scientific method. They can also pay a $5,000 fee to seek an opinion from the bureau about any claim they intend to make — "a trivial amount" for a large corporation, he says.

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