Minutes Confirmed on August 15, 2014

The Parks and Environment Committee recommends that:

1.         City Council restrict the hosting of motorboat-towed competitions and events within the West Channel to a combined total maximum of 10 days per calendar year, including all days which interrupt public use, so as to ensure access to and quiet enjoyment of the surrounding parkland by residents.

This report outlines concrete ways of ensuing legacy use of the most recent 2015 Pan and Parapan American Games (“2015 Games”) capital project approved by Council.

In May 2013, the City received an official request from the Toronto Organizing Committee for the 2015 Pan and Parapan American Games (“TO2015”) to use the waterways between Ontario Place and Marilyn Bell Park (the “West Channel”) to host Wakeboard and Water Ski, Open Water Swimming and the swim segment of the Triathlon during the 2015 Games.  Certain capital works must be completed to the waterways to meet international competition standards (the “West Channel Project”).

In July 2013, Council granted authority to the General Manager of Parks, Forestry and Recreation to create a new capital project called West Channel and to direct $2.42 million of the Toronto Pan Am Sport Centre (“TPASC”) budget savings to fund the new West Channel Project.  In that same meeting, Council directed the General Manager of Parks, Forestry and Recreation to report back on the increased activity and programming that can be accommodated as a result of the planned improvements to the West Channel.

Although there are a number of factors limiting motorsport training and competition in the West Channel, the improvements to the Channel will allow the sports of Water Ski and Wakeboard (“WSW”) to host approximately two elite level boat-towed competitions per year, including regional, national and adaptive amateur events, totaling a maximum of 10 days.  This increased use would begin in the 2016 season.

The Parks and Environment Committee requested the Acting General Manager, Parks, Forestry, and Recreation, to report to the August 15, 2014 Parks and Environment Committee meeting on:

a.         options for a permit fee multi-use discount option for groups of parks friends and non-profit, charitable and faith-based groups and that the report include the implications of lowering the permit cost cap to $900, $800 and $700;

b.         creating a one year pilot project that reduces permit fees for local park volunteer community groups; such report to include potential financial impacts; and

c.         the implementation of an online permitting system in the first quarter of 2015 and a mechanism to ensure that permit holders receive permits at least one month prior to their events.

This report responds to a request from Parks and Environment Committee in January, 2014 to review permitting procedures to identify opportunities to streamline the issuance of park permits to volunteer groups, and it relates to a number of recommended directions and actions in the Parks Plan 2013-2017.

The report outlines the consultations conducted by the Division, responds to issues raised and provides information about the initiatives planned or currently underway to improve permitting processes.

This report provides an update on work to date on the Toronto Agricultural Program (TAP). The report identifies progress on the 2013-2014 TAP Work Plan and indicates next steps for the program as it broadens its focus from short-term objectives and activities to include long-term goals. The report identifies three key activities moving forward:

1          supporting promotion of agricultural activities;

2.         facilitating access to land for agriculture; and

3.         identifying and addressing policy barriers to the expansion of agriculture in Toronto.

The report also addresses directions to staff from Council, including: identifying funding sources to support the TAP; a review of insurance issues for Farmers' Markets; a definition of Urban Agriculture Centres; and the best means to estimate the quantity of food produced in Toronto.

This report provides an update on the City's progress towards meeting the greenhouse gas and air quality pollutants reduction targets adopted by City Council in the 2007 report entitled, Climate Change, Clean Air and Sustainable Energy Action Plan: Moving from Framework to Action (the "Climate Change Action Plan") by reporting on estimated levels of emissions for 2012. 

The information presented in this report is based on electricity and natural gas consumption, as well as, solid waste production in 2012, but there is no new data since 2008 respecting community transportation available for analysis.  In addition, this report updates the previous report regarding emission levels in 2011 based on more recent information from Environment Canada.

Results show that greenhouse gas emissions in 2012 compared to 1990 levels were 49 percent lower for the City Government and 25 percent lower for the City Community. These results show that Toronto has exceeded its 2012 target of a 6 percent reduction from 1990 greenhouse gas levels.  Air quality pollutant emissions, however, in 2012 were only 2.8 percent lower than the 2004 benchmark set by City Council in 2007, which is below the target of a 20 percent reduction in locally generated air pollutants by 2012. The majority of the locally generated air pollutant emissions (80.5 percent) in Toronto are from road vehicles: 35.5 percent are from cars and light trucks, 7 percent are from heavy gasoline trucks and 38 percent are from heavy diesel trucks.

The Government of Ontario enacted the Green Energy Act Regulation 397/11 on January 1, 2012. This legislation requires the City of Toronto to develop and publish a five-year Energy Conservation and Demand Management (ECDM) plan by July 1, 2014. The regulation requires senior management approval of the plan prior to publication. For the past year, the Energy and Waste Management Office within the Environment and Energy Division has been leading efforts to complete this plan and report.

The City of Toronto has a large quantity of facilities under its internal portfolio of buildings and operations. Accordingly, a benchmarking approach to classify opportunities and prioritize future projects was adopted for the development of the ECDM plan. The report is comprised of various building types related to individual divisions. Where sensible, facilities with similar operations under multiple divisions were grouped. Comparison of energy consumption enabled this analysis to estimate energy savings based on potential operational improvements and equipment retrofits to achieve top quartile performance in each building type category. The analysis projects opportunities to cut facility energy consumption by approximately 30 per cent resulting in annual cost savings of over $17 Million with an average payback period of less than 8 years.