The recent Federal budget has made some room for environmental initiatives. These vary from green infrastructure to regulatory changes. In total there are 51 mentions of “environment” and 23 mentions of “environmental” in the recent budget; not exactly overwhelming. Overall, it seems like a missed opportunity. In this time of uncertainty, the Federal government could have used their freedom to spend on initiatives such as clean tech, energy efficiency, government transparency, simpler regulations and other items which would create jobs and stimulate a 21st century economy. Instead, they seemed focused putting in enough token gestures to have it passed. 

Not too much else to convey, except our disappointment on the vision of this budget. While our neighbours down south are planning ambitious projects such as doubling renewable energy production, higher auto fuel efficiency standards and a return to the greenhouse gas negotiating table - us progressive canadians are taking baby steps. Below, I have pulled the main environmental items from the budget. 

Full budget

CBC Summary of Environmental Items

Environmental excerts from the budget:

Reporting

Improving the Government’s annual reporting on key environmental indicators such as clean air, clean water and
greenhouse gas emissions with $10 million in 2009–10.

Green Infrastructure Fund

Targeted investments in green infrastructure can improve the quality of the environment and will lead to a more sustainable economy over the longer term. Green infrastructure includes infrastructure that supports a focus on the creation of sustainable energy. Sustainable energy infrastructure, such as modern energy transmission lines, will contribute to improved air quality and lower carbon emissions.

Budget 2009 provides $1 billion over five years for a Green Infrastructure Fund. Funding will be allocated based on merit to support green infrastructure projects on a cost-shared basis. Canada’s Economic Action Plan Immediate Action to Build Infrastructure .

Regulatory

In addition, the Government will implement administrative changes to streamline application of the Fisheries Act, and regulator y ef ficiencies will be pursued for projects subject to the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act. For example, for projects requiring a federal environmental assessment decision, regulations could allow one environmental assessment process to meet federal and provincial requirements, by agreement with the provinces and territories.

60 new small craft and 30 new environmental response barges that will suppor t Canadian Coast Guard operational requirements across the country. 

Currently, infrastructure approval processes are subject to duplication and inefficiencies in administration, leading to unnecessary project delays. The Government will be introducing changes to the federal regulator y framework throughlegislative, regulator y and administrative actions to drive ef ficiencies in assessing environmental and other impacts of infrastructure projects without compromising protection of the environment. 

Clean Energy Fund

A new Clean Energy Fund that suppor ts clean energy research development and demonstration projects, including carbon capture and storage. 

McKenzie Gas Project

Providing $37.6 million in suppor t of environmental assessments, regulator y coordination, science, and Aboriginal consultations related to the Mackenzie Gas Project.

Lastly, I love how Changing to a Green Energy Economy is a one line in the budget! If it were actually done, it would be one of the largest engineering projects ever done by Canada.

As previously mentioned, we are making video screencasts of the different parts of NIMONIK. Just finished a quick one on the legislation part of the site, take a look below and let us know what you think.

Watch in high quality: Video

Or watch in lower quality here:

This is a cross posting with visiblegovernment.ca

My friend, Jennifer Bell over at visiblegovernment.ca, asked me to write about a recent and interesting presentation extolling the benefits of an “open city”, so here goes. The presenter, Mark Surman, outlines his idea for using collaborative technologies to improve the quality of life and efficiency of a city (Toronto). Based around the concepts of the open-source mouvement, he claims that if cities put the right tools in place, citizens will build low cost ways to access, share and enhance information. There are examples of this already working in different cities; but, he argues it takes significant endorsement from the city to get the projects off the ground. 

If the projects require city data, the developers need to be sure that they will not be punished and ignored by the city, but rather endorsed and listened to. The first step to obtaining support from the tech community is an opening of municipal data. This would include items like by-laws, building permits, and other related material. Without access to information, how can we possibly use it?

Once the information is free, there still needs to be incentives to drive innovation. Competitions are good, but the largest incentive, and what has driven wikipedia, mozilla and other open source solutions, is the recognition that the contributing members obtain from their peers. They feel like they are making a difference and that is a currency of its own. If the city takes the results from websites seriously, then we will inevitably see more sites dealing with municipal affairs. 

For too long, citizens have been separated from their governments by a slow and daunting paper-based bureaucratic wall. But just as Mozilla (Firefox Web Browser) grew from an idea, to a team of 60 developers, to 100 contributors, to millions of users; the same can be done with government information.

Transparency and accessibility will drive the governments of the future, so let’s get started.

P.S. On a similar note, we are happy to announce Nimonik will be adding over 20 cities to our coverage. A complete list and details will be added to our site shortly, stay tuned!

With all the talk surrounding economic angst, the common theme emerging is uncertainty. Who knows what to global downturn will inflict in terms of pain, or how long it will last? But for entrepreneurs, here’s the upside: the bigger the upheaval, the greater the opportunity for businesses to develop effective solutions, especially when they act together.

Which is why this an interesting and timely initiative: a group of stakeholders are set on transforming a 12,000 hectare commercial and industrial park around Toronto’s Pearson airport into North America’s largest eco-business zone.

Partners in Project Green is the culmination of a partnership between the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA) and the Greater Toronto Airports Authority (GTAA). The idea is to encourage businesses to share environmental best practices so they can significantly reduce energy costs, and realize economies of scale by collaborating together.

Among the projects that are in the planning stages: green building retrofits, expansion of greenspaces, waste-recovery projects and smart commuting initiatives. Also planned is the creation of a district energy system that would collect waste steams produced by electricity generators for reuse.

It’s an ambitious plan but one that has the potential to show that by harnessing the brain power of Canada’s biggest industrial park — 12,500 businesses, with some 355,000 employees — crisis can lead to an opportunity for real change.

Over the next few weeks we will be putting together some screencasts of different parts of the site. Here is the first one, a rapid fire overview of our Dashboard. 

Watch in High Quality HERE or below in a smaller version.