Feeling the heat : Pression monte : rapport annuel sur les progrès liés aux gaz à effet de serre, 2015

In September 2014, the newly re-elected Premier issued a mandate letter to the Minister of the Environment and Climate Change that included clear instructions to update Ontario’s climate change strategy, engage the public, and integrate climate change considerations into government decision-making processes.1 The government established a Climate Change Directorate in late 2014, housed within the M [...] The Compact of States and Regions, first announced at the September 2014 Climate Summit in New York City, with further signatories added at the Conference of the Parties in December 2014, looks to be a promising initiative to drive climate action at the state and regional government level. [...] In Chapter 1 of the ECO’s 2014 GHG Report, the ECO described the conclusions of Working Group I for the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC); specifically, the IPCC concluded – with 95 per cent confidence – that human activities have been the dominant cause of climate warming since the 1950s. [...] According to the Report of the Walkerton Inquiry, one of the many factors that contributed to the deadly outbreak of E. coli in Walkerton in 2000 was the heavy rain that assisted the transport of manure into the drinking water supply.41 The 2008 NRCAN scientific literature review on the impacts of climate change on Ontario also reported that intense rainfall and ice storms can result in traffic ac [...] The then Minister of Infrastructure had permitted density targets for many of the municipalities surrounding the Greater Toronto Area below the level that the MTO itself suggests is needed to support “basic transit service.” 20 Greenhouse Gas Progress Report 2015 The government is currently reviewing the Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe, 2006.