Murray sees green at Zero Waste conference

By Andrew Philips Orillia Packet & Times

As the keynote speaker during Thursday’s Zero Waste Conference at Lakehead University’s Orillia campus, Glen Murray said the province’s continued push to reduce its carbon footprint will lead to more jobs and a stronger, more prosperous economy.

“We’re empowering municipalities to do the things they couldn’t do before,” Murray said. “For every 1,000 tonnes we save (in waste), we create seven jobs. That’s a pretty good ratio.”

Murray said the province wants to move away from years of being a disposable and linear economy to create a circular economy, especially when it comes to manufacturing and natural resources.

“People who make things and sell things are now responsible for the end of life of those materials,” he said. “Shifting responsibility from our municipalities to our producers makes sense. Fewer raw materials are used and valuable resources are kept out of the landfills.”

And that’s especially important, according to Murray, since Canadians, annually, each throw out close to 1,000 kilograms of waste.

“Right now, we’re a disposable economy,” he said. “We’re really moving from take, make and waste to make, use and return.”

As well, Murray said, there is hope since some companies are already involved in using reducing their footprint, including a Toronto-based coffee company that uses fully compostable materials rather than plastics for its single-serve coffee containers and a Barrie builder constructing net-zero homes.

“That’s great work in leading and there’s nothing a Liberal likes better than cheap energy bills,” he joked, referring to the government’s recent dealings trying to combat high home electricity bills.

And unlike certain politicians south of the border, Murray noted since climate change is a real issue, the province continues to demonstrate leadership.

“Climate change is solved by two things: zero waste and zero carbon,” said Murray, who also provided a comprehensive overview of provincial government initiatives that he feels will keep turning the tide in Ontario’s favour, including its cap-and-trade measures.

Under that system, introduced in January, companies pay penalties if they exceed an assigned cap on emissions. The trade part is a market for companies to buy and sell allowances that permit them to emit only a certain amount. The Liberal government expects to raise nearly $1.9 billion each year by auctioning off pollution emission credits.

The Liberals’ climate change strategy, including cap-and-trade, will undoubtedly become an issue in next year’s provincial election since Simcoe North MPP and Progressive Conservative Party Leader Patrick Brown recently said he doesn’t approve and would scrap it if elected.

“An Ontario PC government would dismantle the Wynne Liberals’ cap-and-trade cash grab and replace it with a simpler, revenue-neutral plan that will put that money back in taxpayers’ pockets, while actually reducing emissions here in Ontario,” Brown said.

But Murray said his government’s efforts toward climate action will guarantee the highest amount of emission reductions at the lowest possible cost, all while helping its citizens and companies adopt low-carbon technologies.

“Any material can be a pollutant if you put it in the wrong place,” he said. “We need to stop thinking of this stuff as garbage and think about it as an economic opportunity.”