We are writing on behalf of…

We are writing on behalf of the Environment and Sustainability Committee (ESC) of the Ontario Association of School Business Officials (OASBO), representing school boards across the province. The ESC provides an opportunity for like-minded environmental professionals and partners to support school communities by sharing information and best practices related to environmental or sustainability issues and concerns from a purchasing, operations, and program perspective.

We have drafted comments, together as a committee, in response to Bill 4 - Repealing Climate Change Mitigation and Low Carbon Economy Act.

The ESC believes that the government plays a pivotal role in ensuring that all Ontarians, institutions, industry, commercial and individuals, are doing their part to reduce the amount of emissions emitted to the air and contributing to climate change. The most effective mechanism to do so, is to impose a restricted limit on the amount that anyone can emit, and to charge a fee for those that emit beyond that.

Recently, the Nobel prize for economics was awarded to William D. Nordhaus "for integrating climate change into long-run macroeconomic analysis" and Paul M. Romer "for integrating technological innovations into long-run macroeconomic analysis." They concluded from their research that having a fee based structure on carbon was the best way to reduce the impacts of climate change. Collecting those fees, spurs a whole new economy to develop to create new technologies, methodologies that are required to reduce emissions.

The ESC feels that the government has an obligation to listen to ALL Ontarians, and really do a thorough job of seeking out stakeholders, such as school board officials (OASBO members) who manage the largest amount of buildings of all public sectors. In 2017-18 school boards were given $200 million of Greenhouse Gas Reduction Funding (funded through Cap and Trade program). While the final results on the savings are not yet in, we know anecdotally that the amount of energy savings realized by school boards will have a significant impact on energy budgets, and the increased comfort and improved learning environment for students and staff.

The school boards also have a unique mechanism in place whereby we are able to report easily on savings achieved, as the Ministry of Education has a Utility Consumption Database for all buildings owned or managed by school boards.

As professionals in the environment sector, we are acutely aware of the impacts that climate change are going to have on us, and even worse on the next generation. Science has shown us that it takes a full generation before the impacts of the greenhouse gases are actually felt on earth - the impacts we’re seeing now; the floods in Toronto, forest fires in Parry Sound, wild weather systems, and impacts on our food system are the cause of the emissions of the 1980s. Ontario needs to make significant and fast changes to how we are contributing to this global crisis, so we can know that we have done our best for the next generation.