CarbonFree TO - Support Transform TO campaign - Last week!
PLEASE SIGN PETITION and please join us for action this week! Please email or call your councillor to support Transform TO. and come to our Planning meeting on Sunday!
We are in the last week leading up to the new budget which will be voted on by City Council Feb 15th or 16th. In the preliminary budget there are some funds for the city's climate action plan - Transform TO - but only 20% of what they need to do the programs they are ready to roll out in 2017.
20% is not enough. We are in a crisis with runaway climate change threatening our future survival. In Toronto we will be experience heat waves and storms that are extreme. Toronto needs to do our part just as was pledged by Mayor Tory in Dec 2015 following the Paris climate summit. Listen to the Mayor’s inspiring words on our website: www.climatefast.ca/carbonfreeTO. Investing these funds will bring jobs and other benefits to Toronto.
Come out on Sunday Feb 12th at 4 pm to learn more about the Transform TO program, and the $1.1 million we want council to allocate to this program, and consider how we can raise more pressure on city council on Monday Tuesday and Wednesday next week. We'll also make some props to use during the week.
Please save Monday afternoon at 4 pm, and Wednesday morning at 9 am, to be at City Hall if you can. Monday afternoon we will have a tea and info booth for the Mayor and Councillors, and on Wed at 9 am we will participate with other groups in the 'Have a Heart for Toronto' rally before the budget meeting starts.
http://torontocandobetter.ca/2017/02/08/have-a-heart-on-february-15th-rally-for-a-fairer-budget/
You may also want to stay at the City Council for its discussion; it’s good for citizens to be present while these decisions are being made. Those who can come after work can join in at 6 pm. The meeting will likely go till 8 pm. Then we'll go out for supper together.
This is a very important moment for climate action in the City of Toronto. Please join us if you can.
Whether or not you can join us please sign and share our petition, and phone or email your councillor. It's so rare for councillors to hear from constituents that they will take note of your call (or email). All the background you need to write or call is at:
www.climatefast.ca/carbonfreeTO. Or just call 311 and get connected to your councillors' office.
The petition is at this link: https://www.change.org/p/climatefast-let-s-make-canada-s-largest-city-carbon-free
You can also tweet the Mayor: @johntory – Tell him to put climate in the budget! #carbonfreeTO
Next meeting: Sunday Feb 12th, 4 pm, Friends House, 60 Lowther Ave.
Our next campaign meeting after the budget will be Wed Feb 22nd, 6:30 pm also at Friends House, 60 Lowther Ave. We will be reviewing our 2017 budget campaign and looking ahead to the campaign for the release of the 2050 report in May of this year. And we'll be celebrating our success! You are all invited.