Olivia Chow proposes 1 million trees at no cost to taxpayers

Thestar.com
April 25, 2014
By Jennifer Pagliaro

Olivia Chow has also promised 1 million more trees in the city - but said it will cost taxpayers nothing.

The announcement came Friday following the Green Living Show. An email from Chow’s campaign said the mayoral candidate would start by planting an extra 100,000 trees next year after the tree canopy was devastated by “storms, beetles and Rob Ford.”

Chow said she would pay for the new trees and hire 500 youth over five years by “changing the way polluting businesses pay for the city to treat environmentally harmful discharges in the sewage system.”

Business currently pay the city to treat outputs like nitrogen and phosphorous, but the campaign email claimed $3.5 million is lost annually.

All those funds would be recouped under Chow, the email said, and put towards planting.

In all, Chow’s campaign said the goal is to plant 1 million trees over 10 years.

“Our trees clean more than a million tons of carbon a year, help with storm runoff and deliver cleaner air by filtering air pollution,” Chow was quoted as saying in a release following the announcement at the Green Living Show. “They also make our city better and more liveable, and we deserve better than a mayor who thinks they don’t count.”

On Tuesday, mayoral candidate John Tory also proposed more trees, but at an additional cost.

Tory proposed doubling the city’s tree-planting budget, adding $7 million annually for a total of $14 million and aiming to plant 3.8 million trees over 10 years.

Both Chow and Tory have now distanced themselves from Mayor Rob Ford on this environmental policy.

At council, Ford has opposed using any taxpayer money to plant trees and in January tabled a motion to cut all current funding.

The city’s tree canopy, previously at 40 per cent, took a hit after the 2013 ice storm - stripping that number to an estimated 20 per cent - and is additionally threatened by the emerald ash borer.