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new electric school buses. Image credit: Pixaby

​Ontario'sClimateChangeActionPlan, #ElectricSchoolBusPilotProgram, #ChrisBallard, #StevenDelDuca, #Ontario, #MitzieHunter


Ottawa, Aug 20 (Canadian-Media): As part of Ontario's Climate Change Action Plan -- Ontario’s five year plan to fight climate change, reduce greenhouse gas pollution and transition to a low-carbon economy -- Ontario is investing $8 million this year – initiated by proceeds from Ontario's carbon market -- in a new Electric School Bus Pilot Program designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and enabling students a safe, clean transit option to and from school, media reports said. 

 “Ontario’s Climate Change Action Plan and our carbon market work together to support innovative ideas like this electric school bus pilot that will reduce harmful greenhouse gas pollution, help create a cleaner, low-carbon future, and inspire our children in the process,” Chris Ballard, Minister of the Environment and Climate Change.

Cars reportedly account for more Greenhouse gases emissions than industries such as iron, steel, cement, and chemicals combined.
The aim of Ontario’s five-year Climate Change Action Plan, according to official reports, is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 15 percent below 1990 levels by 2020, 37 percent by 2030 and 80 percent by 2050.

The Electric School Bus Pilot Program (ESB Pilot) provides funding to school bus operators to determine if ESBs can operate reliably and cost effectively in Ontario in a range of weather conditions.

 “The electric school bus pilot is another way our government is doing its part to help fight climate change. This pilot program will help us better understand how electric school buses could operate across Ontario. And children riding in an electric school bus will have the added benefit of seeing the possibilities in creating a greener, cleaner environment,” Steven Del Duca, Minister of Transportation.

The pilot program will run from Dec. 1, 2017 to June 30, 2019. Applications must be submitted by Oct. 13, 2017.

To apply for funding under the ESB Pilot, an eligible applicant must be a school bus operator that provides public or private school student transportation in Ontario.

A condition for funding required collection and analyzing of ESB performance data of the successful applicants by a third-party researcher hired by the Ministry of Transportation.

Data collected on the performance of the ESB will be used to develop a business case for their adoption by school bus operators, and also a examine their potential within student transportation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve air quality.

Selection of Ontario’s school bus operators’ applications for funding to purchase an electric school bus and associated charging infrastructure would reportedly be based on their experience in student transportation, ability to successfully deliver a pilot project, as well as their location in Ontario, type of route serviced, and the size of their school bus fleet.

“For many students in Ontario, the school day begins when they step on the bus in the morning and ends when it returns them home safely. By adding electric school buses to our student transportation system, we can reduce greenhouse gas emissions and give our students a healthier school experience from pick up to drop off,” Mitzie Hunter, Minister of Education.

Approximately 100 electric school buses reportedly are currently in use in North America and their use is growing in jurisdictions, including California and Quebec.
 
(Reporting by Asha Bajaj)

​Skilled workers. Image credit: Pixaby

#GreenJobs, #Ontario’sClimateChang ActionPlan, #lowcarbonfuture, #ChrisBallard, #DebMatthews, #JosephMancinelli, #GlenMurray, #KathleenWynne


Toronto, Aug 12 (Canadian-Media): As part of Ontario's strategy for the Climate Change Action Plan to cut greenhouse gas pollution to 15 percent below 1990 levels by 2020, Ontario is investing $24 million from the proceeds of the province’s carbon market to help develop green building skills, announced Deb Matthews, Minister of Advanced Education and Skills Development on August 10 at the LiUNA Local 1059 Regional Training Centre in London, a news release said.

About one quarter of Ontario’s total greenhouse gas pollution, continued the release, are due to energy consumed by the buildings
“Buildings and homes are a significant source of greenhouse gas pollution,” said Matthews. “Helping workers in the buildings sector develop green skills means that our workforce will be better prepared for the jobs of tomorrow and position us to win the critical fight against climate change.”

Ontario is committed to transparency, said the release, and will invest all proceeds from its cap into programs that help households and businesses fight climate change.

“Ontario’s Climate Change Action Plan and our carbon market are supporting skills development and training for workers who will help protect our environment and fight climate change. This investment is part of our government’s commitment to support households and businesses as they reduce greenhouse gas pollution and transition to a low-carbon future,” Chris Ballard, Ontario Minister of the Environment and Climate Change said.

Ontario is introducing initiatives, the release said, to families and businesses to make them ready for the low-carbon economy and helping unions, colleges and universities in acquiring new equipment, new and upgraded facilities to support green building skills training for current and future workers in low-carbon building skills.

 “Winning the fight against climate change requires a workforce that is up to the task.” said Joseph Mancinelli, LiUNA International Vice President and Regional Manager of Central and Eastern Canada.

“Supporting low-carbon building skills will help to ensure we can fulfill this need and is an important step toward a greener future for our children and our grandchildren. We are proud supporters of this initiative, and look forward to working with Minister Matthews as we transition to a low-carbon economy, “Mancinelli said.

Ontario premier Kathleen Wynne in Ontario’s Five Year Climate Change Action Plan 2016 – 2020 Report said, “Already we’ve taken strong action by ending dirty coal emissions in our province...showing the important role that provinces and regions play in building a low-carbon economy, we are influencing action around the world.”

Last year, we hosted more than 300 delegates at the Climate Summit of the Americas. It was a pivotal meeting of provincial, state and municipal leaders that focused on turning the threat of climate change into an incredible opportunity through collaboration and innovation.”

“Our actions will help more Ontario households and businesses adopt low- and net zero carbon energy solutions in homes, vehicles and workplaces…We will become a leading North American hub for low- and zero carbon technology companies. Your government is leading by example. We are committing to make government carbon neutral in 2018,” Murray was quoted as saying my the media.

​(Reporting by Asha Bajaj)

#​CatherineMcKenna, #Ottawa, #Canada, #Inuit, #TorngatMountains, #NatanObed, #InuitTapiriitKanatami, #DarrochWhitaker, #IndigenousPeoples,   #Labrador'sTorngatMountainsBaseCampandResearchStation, #LabradorInuitAssociation, #Canada’sArctic

Toronto, Aug 11 (Canadian-Media): Canada's Environment and Climate Change Minister, Catherine McKenna visited last week Inuit-operated national park in in northern coastal Labrador to study the life of Inuit people and about climate change there, media reports said. 

Inuit were indigenous people who reportedly lived in Northern coast Labrador  -- a large area of mainland Canada, separated from Newfoundland, an island in the Atlantic Ocean by the Strait of Belle Isle -- soon adapted themselves to the arctic and sub-arctic conditions of the Labrador region, CBCNews reports said. .

Together Newfoundland and Labrador reportedly form the most easterly province in Canada.

The coastal areas of Labrador had reportedly abundance of whales, seals, fish, caribou and large forests and McKenna said she had a chance to watch the Inuit hunt seals. 

During her visit to the Torngat Mountains -- ancestral home of the Labrador Inuit and managed by Inuit staff -- she was accompanied by Natan Obed, the president of the national Inuit organization, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, a nonprofit organization in Canada that works to improve the health and wellbeing of the Inuit people through research and education. 

"He was able to tell me really about the Inuit experience in the park, so I could learn a lot more about our history — which is a lot longer than 150 years, that's for sure — and really understand the Inuit connection with the land," McKenna said, the news reports said.

McKenna said in her tweets that she also had an opportunity to meet with scientists & Inuit elders at Torngat Mountains to learn about Parks Canada Science.

In the middle of the trek to the top of the Torngat Mountains right at basecamp, McKenna said that the bear guard spotted a black bear and was thankful to the guard for protecting her from the bear.

McKenna said she was also able to see firsthand the effects of climate change in the north.

During an exclusive interview with scientist Darroch Whitaker about her tour reportedly conducted near Labrador's Torngat Mountains Base Camp and Research station -- a remote site in the far reaches of Labrador and is the gateway to Torngat Mountains National Park and Hebron National Historic Site -- she said that she had come there mainly for two reasons, first to study the life of people living there as part of reconciliation and the second to study the effect of  climate change.

She had begun to contemplate, said McKenna, how she would link Indigenous Peoples with Environment and Climate Change Canada scientists to our park ecologists and biologists to advance our knowledge of the effects of climate change.

She said Canada’s Arctic, abode of Inuit people, was very vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.

"We see it [across the country] in floods. We now have forest fires, we have droughts. But in the arctic, that's the canary in the coal mine." 

"They are already seeing double the warming. That's having a real impact in very tangible ways," news reports quoted her saying.

Inuit people in the Park were focused on what’s happening in parks on a micro level, said McKenna, whereas Environment and Climate Change Canada scientists were studying this on a large scale

McKenna said much could be achieved by engaging the local community in monitoring. 

She hoped to apply, said McKenna, the lessons she learned from visiting the park to her work with the environment.

She was amazed, she said, by the stunning beauty of  Torngat Mountains, the National park, its biodiversity, the animals, people living here, with a long history, and contemplated how she would best narrate the story of the park on her return to Ottawa.

 (Reporting by Asha Bajaj)