Over 500 people attended the National Round Table’s Urban Information Session held in Toronto on February 24, 2004. The final stop of the seven-city series, speakers included: (from left to right) His Worship Mayor David Miller; the Honourable Michael Harcourt, NRTEE member and Chair of the Prime Minister’s External Advisory Committee on Cities and Communities; Gene Nyberg, Acting Executive Director & CEO, NRTEE; the Honourable John Godfrey, Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister with special emphasis on cities.

The National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy (NRTEE) wrapped up its information series on investing in the environmental quality of Canadian cities in Toronto on February 24.

Urban sprawl, rapid growth, gridlock, noise, smog and site contamination-these were among the issues tackled by leading urban specialists and regional experts at the series of information meetings, which kicked off in Calgary on September 30 and made stops in Vancouver, Winnipeg, Montreal, Halifax and Ottawa.
"A consistent theme at every session was endorsement of the Round Table's reports," explained NRTEE chair Harvey Mead, "as well as an emphasis on the need for better funding for cities, greater federal-provincial-municipal cooperation, and the formation of a coherent urban strategy."

Each half-day meeting consisted of a presentation of the NRTEE State of the Debate Report Environmental Quality in Canadian Cities: The Federal Role and the NRTEE's Cleaning up the Past, Building the Future: A National Brownfield Redevelopment Strategy for Canada. The presentation of each report was followed by a local perspectives panel discussing that report's findings.

Speakers in Toronto included: His Worship Mayor David Miller; the Honourable Michael Harcourt, NRTEE member and Chair of the Prime Minister's External Advisory Committee on Cities and Communities; John Livey, Chief Administrative Officer, Town of Markham; Juri Pill, Senior Vice-President, Borealis Infrastructure Management Inc.; Dianne Saxe, Environmental Lawyer, Dianne Saxe Professional Corporation; and, Mitchell Fasken, President, Jannock Properties.

Speakers on a special "Looking Ahead" panel were: David Crombie, President and CEO, Canadian Urban Institute; The Honourable John Gerretsen, MPP, Ontario Minister of Municipal Affairs; and, The Honourable John Godfrey, Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister with special emphasis on cities.

In Ottawa on January 30, the local perspectives panels were made up of: Mayor Bob Chiarelli, City of Ottawa, Ned Lathrop, General Manager, Development Services, City of Ottawa; John Doran, President, Domicile Developments Inc.; Alex Munter, Visiting Professor, School of Urban Studies and Communications, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ottawa; Curry Wood, Vice-President, National Capital Commission, Capital Planning and Real Asset Management; and, Jeff Westeinde, CEO, Quantum Environmental Group.

The local presenters in Halifax on January 22 were: John Charles, Open Space Planner, Halifax Regional Municipality; David Nantes, Vice-President, Annapolis Group Inc. Land Developers; Frank Palermo, Professor, Faculty of Architecture and Planning, and Director, Cities and Environment Unit, Dalhousie University; Michael Sprague, Director, Remediation Branch, New Brunswick Department of Environment and Local Government, and Co-Chair, Program Development Group, Atlantic Partnership in RBCA Implementation; and, David O'Carroll, Associate Site Remediation Specialist, Imperial Oil Limited, representing the Canadian Petroleum Products Institute.

(Left to right) NRTEE Chair Harvey Mead and Edwin Aquilina, NRTEE member and Co-Chair of the NRTEE Urban Sustainability Task Force are joined by local panellists Alan DeSousa, member of the City of Montreal Executive Committee responsible for sustainable development; Sylvain Bouffard, Director, Policy and Analysis, Board of Trade; and Robert Perreault, Director General, Conseil régional de l’environnement de Montréal on January 15, 2004 in Montreal.

Local presenters in Montreal on January 15 included: Alan DeSousa, Member of the City of Montreal Executive Committee responsible for sustainable development; Sylvain Bouffard, Director, Policy and Analysis, Board of Trade; Robert Perreault, Director General, Conseil régional de l'environnement de Montréal; Madeleine Caron, Director, Ministry of Environment; Robert Daigneault, Lawyer, Cabinet d'avocats; and, Louise Millette, Director, Department of Civil, Geological and Mining Engineering, École Polytechnique and President, Environment Committee, Conseil régional de développement de l'Île de Montréal.

The NRTEE is preparing a report to the federal government based on feedback received at these sessions.

Indicators adopted: The Speech from the Throne and NRTEE

In the federal Speech from the Throne speech delivered February 3 to open the third session of the 37th Parliament, there were a number of references to work done by the National Round Table, but the NRTEE was also mentioned specifically in the section of the speech dealing with sustainable development initiatives.

Governor General Adrienne Clarkson said: "…building on recommendations of the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy, the Government will start incorporating key indicators on clean water, clean air, and emissions reduction into its decision making."

For the full text of the speech, please visit the Prime Minister's Web site at www.pm.gc.ca.

Energy case studies: EFR program enters second phase

Having wrapped up an initial phase looking at the role of fiscal policy in relation to issues such as agricultural landscapes, toxic substances and heavy fuel oil, the NRTEE Ecological Fiscal Reform (EFR) program is now embarking on a second phase examining the role of fiscal policy in promoting long-term energy-based carbon emission reductions. This second phase will carry out case studies focused on sectors that have high potential for helping Canada reach its carbon emission reduction targets: renewable power, hydrogen and energy efficiency. It will also generate a State of the Debate report.

The NRTEE defines ecological fiscal reform as "A strategy that redirects a government's taxation and expenditure programs to create an integrated set of incentives to support the shift to sustainable development."

The NRTEE launched its EFR program three years ago to explore the potential for EFR in Canada. The NRTEE believes that economic instruments, particularly fiscal instruments, are a key tool that governments have in helping achieve sustainability objectives, but they are currently underutilized. The current focus is on the key issue of energy and on how to use fiscal policy to reduce energy-based carbon emissions without increasing other pollutants.

The overall program goal is to demonstrate how governments can use their single most powerful policy instrument-fiscal policy-in an integrated and coherent way to achieve environmental and economic objectives.

Please check the NRTEE Web site for more information.

New NRTEE boreal forest task force gets down to work

As part of the second phase of its nature conservation program, the newly appointed NRTEE Boreal Forest Task Force has begun case studies on three boreal forest areas of Canada where there is significant biodiversity as well as potential to influence policy and multiple stakeholder interest. These three case studies are due to be completed by the fall of this year, and on-site stakeholder workshops related to the preparation of the case studies are scheduled for April and May.

The task force, appointed in December 2003, is co-chaired by two NRTEE members-Bill Borland, Director of Environmental Affairs for JD Irving Limited and Wendy Carter of Vancouver, British Columbia.

The three case study areas

The Muskwa-Kechika Management Area (M-KMA) - The M-KMA is located in northeastern British Columbia where the extensive boreal plains and muskeg of the east meet the mountains of the west. Traditionally used by First Nations for hunting, gathering and fishing, the M-KMA is one of North America's largest (6.3 million hectares) intact wilderness territories south of the 60th parallel and an ecological region of international significance. The M-KMA also borders what are potentially British Columbia's richest oil and gas reserves.

Close to one quarter of the M-KMA lands are designated as parks or protected areas. To maintain wilderness and wildlife habitat while allowing for ecologically sensitive logging, mining and oil and gas exploration, the remainder of the M-KMA lands are mostly zoned as special management areas. Key players in the M-KMA include Aboriginal peoples, NGOs, the M-KMA management board, and provincial and federal governments.

The Alberta-Pacific Forest Management Agreement (AlPac FMA) Area - There is intensive industrial activity in the AlPac FMA area through forestry as well as oil and gas development.

Roughly coinciding with the Athabasca oil sands region, and approximately 58,000 square kilometers in size, the AlPac FMA area stretches from the Saskatchewan border west to Lesser Slave Lake, with its southern border starting just north of Athabasca and its northern border in the Birch Mountains region of Fort McMurray.
Key players in the AlPac FMA include forest and oil and gas industries, Aboriginal peoples-close to 26,000 live within the FMA-NGOs such as the Sierra Club, provincial and federal governments and an environmental management association.

The Abitibi Region, Quebec-Ontario Border - Abitibi is the Quebec region with the highest production in mining. Two big forestry companies also operate here.

The 11.6 million-hectare region is located in western Quebec and falls almost entirely within the boreal forest eco-zone. The proposed case study area takes in the majority of the Abitibi Region which includes part of northern Ontario. The southern limit of the case study area in Ontario coincides with the southern limit of the boreal forest and the northern limit with the James Bay region border.

The Algonquin, Cree and Attikamek peoples live in the region. There are various protected areas-six new biodiversity reserves were recently announced for the region. Outdoor recreation and tourism are also important to the economy of the area.

For more information on this nature conservation program, please consult the NRTEE Web site.

Capital Markets and Sustainability Update

The National Round Table has announced an innovative new policy research initiative to explore the links between sustainability and financial performance in Canada.

As part of this new NRTEE Capital Markets and Sustainability program, scoping meetings started last fall in Ottawa, and have been held since in Toronto, Calgary, Montreal and Vancouver. These meetings, attended by key capital market players and interests, set out the basics. For example, how should "responsible investing (R/I)" and "corporate responsibility (C/R)" be defined for the purposes of the program? What's the current and potential financial return to business in pursuing CR policies, and is this return recognized in the investment allocation decisions of fund managers in capital markets?

The ultimate goal of the program is to produce a State of the Debate report, containing findings and key policy recommendations which may include changes to legislation and reporting practices. The report will be of interest to government, private sector corporations, large institutional fund managers, labour and environmental groups.

NRTEE member John Wiebe (President and CEO, GLOBE Foundation of Canada) and NRTEE vice-chair Patricia McCunn-Miller are the co-chairs of the yet-to-be-named Capital Markets and Sustainability Task Force.

Watch for more details in upcoming issues of Review.

For more information, please contact:
National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy
344 Slater Street, Suite 200
Ottawa, Ontario K1R 7Y3
Tel.: (613) 992-7189
Fax: (613) 992-7385
E-mail:

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