Why Should I Care?

Health Canada is charged with protecting the health and safety of Canadians, a job that covers everything from overseeing ingredients in cosmetics and bath toys to approving which drugs can be sold in Canada. Is this agency–responsible for so much at once–able to meet its full mandate?

MP Terence Young isn’t so sure. After losing a daughter to a prescription drug which has since been pulled from the market, Young began to explore how the drug industry operates and the conflicting role Health Canada plays in ensuring Canadians’ well-being. In his book “Death by Prescription,”  he advocates for an independent drug agency, unsaddled by conflicts of interest.

On Monday, November 7th, Mr. Young will share his concerns about drug safety in Canada, and lead us in a wider discussion about Health Canada and why it may be coming up short.

We’ll be meeting at the Duke of York Pub at 7pm (39 Prince Arthur Avenue).  Doors open at 7:00, discussion starts at 7:30. Hope to see you there!

Please RSVP at our Eventbrite page for a chance to win our doorprize.

A restaurant and bar’s probably the best place for a talk on food. Better even than a farm, especially with the rain storm we had on Tuesday night

The latest edition of Why Should I Care? focused on food security—an issue with many, many, many facets to it, as the range of questions proved. Our guest speaker was Darcy Higgins, Executive Director of the Food Forward Advocacy Alliance a Toronto-based, registered non-profit organization advocating for a better food system.

Food Forward works with the public, politicians and those involved in the food sector to educate and advocate for food that is local, accessible, sustainable, ethically produced and a lot healthier. Making all that happen will be a lot of work.

Darcy asked us—amid the clink of forks on plates—what the problems were with our current food system. He got a lot of different answers. One of the main ones was the idea that unhealthy foods are subsidized, making them cheap, while healthier foods remain quite expensive. This causes increased health costs down the road. “Pay the doctor or pay the farmer,” said Darcy.

Other concerns included corporate control of the food system, and a shrinking population of farmers working the land. Canadian farmers are getting older, Darcy explained, and their sons and daughters aren’t being encouraged to continue the family tradition.

What can we do?

Darcy’s approach is to bring together diverse groups of stakeholders, to encourage greater awareness of our food industry and how it works.  This includes improving urban access to fresh, healthy food (many Torontonians live more than a kilometer from a grocery store), increasing healthy food options in public schools, and making farming a more viable career option for young people.

The resulting discussion was lengthy, lively and varied. Up for debate (as always) was the issue of government subsidies for certain crops—how involved should the government be in determining prices? On the issue of food shortage, it was confirmed that we don’t have one—in fact, we destroy an enormous amount of food every year. (Milk is poured down drains, yet the price of milk is high in Ontario.) Others questioned the role genetically modified organisms (GMOs) should play in our food supply.

Some guests told stories. The owner of an all-local gourmet food store, the Culinarium, explained his rationale for running his business. Another gentleman described his lifelong hobby of gardening: a source of fresh vegetables for his table since the Second World War. He also pointed out that, within two or three days of being picked, even vegetables you grow yourself taste no better than those from the store.

Of course we talked portion sizes, and obesity. Slaughterhouses came up too, with Darcy arguing the advantages of small-scale operations. He also explained why small-sized grocery stores matter. “Even a store like Sobeys needs to purchase in bulk,” he said. Only small operations can afford to fill a store with top quality meat and produce.

All in all, a nourishing evening for the mind. See you next month.

PLEASE NOTE CHANGE OF LOCATION!!!!

Roughly half the Earth’s population now lives in cities, meaning fewer farmers are producing the food it takes to feed us. Here in Canada, though we are blessed with abundant land, a growing portion of our food is coming from abroad–as oil prices rise, our food cost will sure to follow. Food safety and security is often taken for granted.

Darcy Higgins, Executive Director of the Food Forward Advocacy Alliance, has some ideas on how to fix this. And he wants to share them with us.

Food Forward is a Toronto-based, registered non-profit organization advocating for a better food system. It works with the public, politicians and those involved in the food sector to educate and advocate for food that is healthy, local, sustainable, ethically produced and accessible for all.

We’ll be meeting at Pauper’s Pub (539 Bloor St) on October 12th at 7pm.  Doors open 7pm, discussion starts 7:30.

As always, our events are free.  Please RSVP to using Eventbrite for an entry for our doorprize.

In spite of the looming provincial election, 19 September marked another successful WSIC event, with about 30 interested citizens joining the WSIC team to hear about and discuss Ontario’s Green Energy Act.

John Stepheson kicked off the evening with a discussion on district heating. Space and water heating account for about 20% of our energy consumption, and we can’t live without the heat. Since marginal energy use comes from the grid – which is heavy on fossil fuels – improvements in secondary heating can generate significant returns.

District heating accounts for only about 1% of heating energy in Canada, as these projects have difficulty competing with natural gas on price. In Sweden, by contrast, carbon taxes make gas less competitive and district heating accounts for about 50%. From the speaker’s perspective, feed in tariff prices for alternatives promotes generation but doesn’t provide a market incentive for loads, like district heating, to switch to sustainable alternatives.

John was joined by Kevin Matthews from Canada Composting, a private company that provides anaerobic digestion of organics into methane – the energy output of 1/3 of Toronto’s 120 tons of annual green bin waste. With organics disposal coming to condos, we hope more of Toronto’s waste will be converted to usable methane.

Admittedly, at inception the project was viewed by government as an alternative to landfill disposal. The methane product from organic digestion can be purified and the purified methane – aka “Pipeline Gas” – can join the existing natural gas infrastructure. As volumes and capacity increase, biomass should join other renewables as a generation option, rather than a green disposal alternative.

The Green Energy Act is more than a feed-in tariff. It also mandates that 50% of green tech be manufactured in Ontario: while the photovoltaics mostly come from China, for example, the majority of a given generation system must be made and assembled here in Ontario. John questioned whether this was a suitable use of competitive advantage: the Ontario market is not large enough to develop scale economies as compared to industries in places like Sweden, Austria, and Italy that are already tooled-up.

The Act does not include a provincial plan for siting facilities. Accordingly, proposed facilities have to go through a local process for approval without any legislative aid and are frequently derailed by NIMBY activists. John noted that his company prepares proposals in response to RFPs about annually at a cost approaching 1/4 million; none have been lost, but none have gone ahead. Both speakers agreed that provincial direction is needed to overcome this gap.

Attendees also discussed the economic realities of the higher feed in costs for renewables. While some were concerned that higher power costs means job losses – particularly to Quebec – John noted that there are very few industries in Ontario that are so power intensive, and accordingly very few businesses for which small changes in marginal energy cost would be relevant as compared to most other cost factors. The changes in price would likely be very small: the current mix has an almost negligible proportion of renewables and the marginal price is set by the grid.

Please join us for another night of non-partisan discussion October 12^th with MP Terence Young about the need for an independent drug agency in Canada.

Keeping to the provincial election theme, our next event will focus on the Green Energy Act since the election is shaping up to be a battle over Ontario’s energy future. Much has been heard in the media about wind turbines and solar panels but the media has not paid attention to less sexy, but equally important factors in the energy sector.

How has the GEA affected lesser known but equally important players in the energy and environmental field?

Kevin Matthews from Canada Composting and John Stephenson from FVB Energy will be joining us for a discussion about alternative energy resources and the role that GEA plays in it.

Join the discussion September 19th at the Duke of York Pub at 7pm (39 Prince Arthur Avenue). Doors Open 7:00. Discussion begins 7:30.

Please RSVP on eventbrite for a chance our doorprize.

On Monday night at the Duke of York, more than 80 local residents joined Why Should I Care in welcoming three provincial MPP candidates for the riding of Trinity-Spadina. Incumbent NDP MPP Rosario Marchese, the Liberal’s Sarah Thomson, and the Green Party’s Tim Grant all attended. The Conservative Candidate declined our invitation… and missed quite a show.

Candidates were permitted to begin with a short speech introducing themselves and their positions. After declining a poorly timed cell phone call, Tim Grant proceeded to pull no punches, calling for public transit reform. He noted that the current debate is mostly about how transit is funded, and not about how transit must be planned in order to be successful and sustainable in the long term. Noting that we spend six times as much on roads as on transit, Grant said transport funding should be more reflective of the province’s 80% urban nature.

Liberal Sarah Thompson took a more personal approach, describing her background both in and outside of the riding and in particular her recent bid for the Mayoral chair, hinting that if elected as MPP, Rob Ford might remain in her sights. She also emphasized her entrepreneurial background, first in transportation and presently as publisher of the Women’s Post, saying that she supported the liberal approach of supporting entrepreneurialism over big government.

Incumbent Rosario Marchese seemed, perhaps not surprisingly, most comfortable with the room, promoting a ‘people focus’ for his politics and applying it to condo owners (vs. developers), rules for junk food advertising, tuition fee reduction, and an electric rail link to the airport. He stated that he promotes a return to the 50/50 funding formula for transit, and an end to corporate tax cuts, both of which provide the tax base for these programs.

Following the candidates’ comments, the floor was opened to questions. Speakers were invited to read their question to the candidates but, because of the limited time with all candidates, the audience was then polled to determine whether a majority present wished to hear the candidates’ responses to, and audience commentary on, the question. Questions concerning treatment for Multiple Sclerosis, Ontario Municipal Board zoning, and the HST failed to make the cut, as did others, but questions on child care, nuclear power, affordable housing, underemployment, and transit made for a very active debate and discussion, relevant to the overwhelming majority of participants.
Perhaps the most heated discussion arose from the question about the maintenance of the separate Catholic school system. Ontario’s Environment Commissioner, Gord Miller wisely added that, with French language education, there are in fact four separate systems. While the crowd present seemed to agree with the United Nations, which has censured Ontario for maintaining this system, only Grant was prepared to state that Ontario should break with this constitutional legacy.
Ultimately, all three candidates engaged with the discussion in a meaningful and unscripted way, which was much appreciated by those in attendance and contributed greatly to the success of the event.

Marchese returned frequently to the theme of provincial funding cuts (mostly attributed to Mike Harris) having had a detrimental impact on the city. He also reflected on, as he put it, a now-chronic unfair funding formula, and the ability of the corporate sector to sustain small tax increases, where required, to return to a more equitable ratio.

Thompson was the most combative of the three, taking several opportunities to challenge the incumbent on having realistic plans to back his politics the power in opposition to effect them, and asked for the voters to make a change after 21 years of consistent representation by him.
Grant preferred to focus on how best practices could be adopted in a variety of areas, from building code to job training, and asked voters to make history by electing him as the first Green member of Ontario’s legislature.

The WSIC team extends their thanks to all the candidates and attendees, and invites you all to join and continue the discussion on-line at www.whyshouldicare.ca/, on Facebook, and on Twitter #WSIC_Canada.

By Christine P

**Please note the CHANGE OF LOCATION**

In the fall, Ontarians will be voting for the third time in a year, this time will be for their Members of Provincial Parliament. Candidates from the local riding will be joining our event about provincial political issues and will be taking your questions.

On Monday August 29th, join Tim Grant, Rosario Marchese, and Sarah Thomson, for a discussion about the issues surrounding the upcoming election.  We will be meeting at the DUKE OF YORK PUB on 39 PRINCE ARTHUR AVE.

We promise a fresh new debate and discussion style that will challenge you and our candidates to think about the issues facing our province.

Please make sure to RSVP to our event at our evenbrite page.  Seating may be limited due to demand.  Preference will be given to registered guests.  Doors open 7:00pm. Debate begins at 7:30.

Special thanks to Dave Meslin and Amanda Klein for sharing with us their views on democratic reform.  Chris Edwards has shared his thoughts from the evening below.

A lot of ideas for democratic reform were discussed throughout the evening, and the major takeaway is that the system as it stands creates a divisive political atmosphere.  Whatever the preferred method, citizens should be invested in having the system change.

Please keep the conversation going by liking our facebook page and sharing additional thoughts and ideas there (or in the comments below).

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Our WSIC events are getting bigger, more engaged, and more interesting every month. That’s no spin: I’ve been to the last five and each has been better attended than the one before, with more vigorous debate on the issues of the day. After two events on the subject of green energy, we moved, last Monday, to something very different: voting reform.

You’ve probably heard of our guest speaker, Dave Meslin: he’s a Toronto activist who makes the news regularly; most recently during this city’s record-breaking ‘citizen’s filibuster’ down at City Hall. One of the many organizations he’s involved himself in, led and/or founded is the Ranked Ballot Initiative of Toronto (‘RaBIT’), and that was the subject of his talk this week.

RaBIT advocates for ‘run-off voting’ in future Toronto elections; it claims this would eliminate vote splitting, reduce strategic voting, ensure majority support for winning candidates, discourage negative campaigning and provide more choice for voters too.

Meslin, accompanied by RaBIT colleague, Amanda Klein, opened with this: whatever reforms to our current voting system you happen to back, almost everyone agrees that the system we have now is the worst. Then he called up several volunteers from the audience, making them ‘candidates’ in a simplified election that proved how a candidate with minimal support can win out under the system we’ve got. Under RaBIT-style reforms, he said, this would not occur.

Typical for a WSIC event, there were lots of questions. Some members of the audience supported Meslin’s ideas, others did not; he answered them all. Klein, too, proved adept in the debate—some WSIC guests can get a little loud, but she stood her ground. This was the sort of environment WSIC is designed for: an interplay of ideas; a debate between smart people, passionate about a subject that affects them all. Like all of WSIC’s themes, voter reform is not an issue that’s easily resolved, even by people between who agree on a great many things. But dialogue is good.

Thanks to Dave Meslin and Amanda Klein for giving us the time to hear their views first-hand. I think everyone—guests, organizers, and even the speakers, learned a lot on Monday night.

Chris Edwards

The Ranked Ballot Initiative of Toronto or “RaBIT” for short is a non-partisan volunteer-run grassroots initiative to bring instant run-off ranked ballots to Toronto municipal elections.  We want more friendly elections and fairer results.  It’s an easy change for Toronto (as easy as 1,2,3!), and one which would reduce strategic voting, eliminate vote-splitting, discourage negative campaigning and ensure majority support.

Please join Dave Meslin and Amanda Klein from the RaBIT team on July 25th in a discussion about voting reform, how instant run-off ranked ballots work and why Toronto needs this change.

We’ll be meeting at Pauper’s Pub on the second floor, on July 25th at 7pm.  As always, the event is absolutely free (you only have to pay for what you order).

RSVP at our eventbrite page for a chance to win our door prize!

June’s discussion of the Green Economy drew our biggest turnout yet! WSIC packed the bar with thoughtful people, all eager to listen to our experts and voice their own opinions on this complex subject.

Kate Holloway, Director of Business Development at the Ontario Sustainable Energy Association, started us off with a brief explanation of why conservation matters. We’re approaching the limits of our finite resources and must end our dependence on fossil fuels. Conservation is needed to ensure a smooth transition from fossil fuels to alternative sources of energy.

Next to speak was Jeff Dreben, Managing Director at DBL Capital, a company long ahead of the curve in terms of sustainable business practices. Jeff described his reasons for starting his business, then went further, pointing out that California, a state with approximately the same population as all of Canada, currently invests 20 times more than we do in clean technology. While California’s public sector pension fund has rules requiring it to invest part of its assets in clean technology, no such rules exists here in Canada.

Gord Miller, Environmental Commissioner of Ontario, spoke up from the audience. He pointed out that, as we come to terms with the realities of dwindling fossil fuel supplies, we will have to make choices between producing vital products like plastics (made from fossil fuels) and driving our trucks.

The conversation continued, now exploring the role each of us play in our environment and the economic impact of consumer choices. Although power to effect environmental change is generally perceived to be in the hands of government, Kate and Jeff agreed that consumers could do more. Social media may do more to reduce resource consumption than government ever could, since people can influence the choices of those around them in ways institutions cannot.