Dr. Elizabeth Schwartz - is an Assistant Professor at the Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy at the University of Saskatchewan. Her primary research interests include local government decision making at the intersection of climate change policy and energy policy and local governments' decisions regarding support for or opposition to large energy projects. Her research has been funded by a number of external granting agencies, including the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions. She has disseminated her findings as publications and at numerous conferences and invited presentations in Canada and the United States.

Presentation: Climate Change Policies in Canadian Cities
Buildings produce a large proportion of Canada's greenhouse gas emissions and municipalities control a number of policy levers that can help to reduce those emissions. In this talk, Schwartz uses the examples of Toronto, Winnipeg and Brampton to investigate why some cities have more stringent green building standards than others. She argues that electoral disincentives prevent most cities from enacting high impact green building policies, but the success of some cities can be attributed to the influence of independent municipal environment departments. These departments facilitate policy learning by providing information and resources. The findings suggest that policy makers could improve the effectiveness of local climate change policy by creating municipal environment departments that have organizational capacity—funding, staff, and a cross-cutting mandate—and are insulated from interference from politicians and line departments.

   
Agenda

7:00am – 7:15am – Arrive & register
7:15am – 7:50am – Breakfast, introductions, current events, open discussion
7:50am – 8:30am – Presentation
8:30am – 8:40am – Q & A



Regards
Martin Boucher (EMTF Saskatoon presentation comittee).