FES

This report presents research findings based on interviews with social housing practitioners in Ontario.  The research contributes to existing literature on regeneration issues from an Ontario perspective and offers Canadian social housing practitioners and policy-makers research findings more relevant to their operating context.  It does so by connecting particular experiences of challenges associated with social housing regeneration to wider academic and policy literature.  The literature review draws on studies from the UK, Europe, Australia and Canada.

The research found that the two principal causes of degeneration of social housing in Ontario were: managing aging or low quality housing stock; and supporting tenants with high and multiple support needs.  The interaction of these two factors with local characteristics, such as the location and concentration of social housing, creates differences in how degeneration manifests itself across the Province.  However one common factor is that the demands associated with social housing regeneration are increasing whereas funding for social housing from federal, provincial and municipal sources is not.  Market oriented housing programs may provide a long term solution to meeting social housing need but will require a more socially entrepreneurial culture within the sector supported by a more outcome based policy framework.  Social housing providers recognised the need to broaden their skill levels either by working more closely with partner organisations or increasing the scale of their operations.  Both strategies are accompanied by challenges, which the report’s 15 policy recommendations are intended to address.

"The waste hierarchy is the framework most commonly employed by municipalities to manage waste. Although ‘reduce re-use, recycle’ are its most oft-cited components, the waste hierarchy
in fact comprises a further two elements, namely, ‘recover’ and ‘dispose’. The resource efficiency principles upon which the waste hierarchy is based take no account of impacts to human health, despite the fact that humans produce and have an intimate role in managing municipal waste.

The premise for this presentation is that innovations in the management of municipal waste are attended by changing human and environmental health impacts as a result of alterations to the way waste flows through waste management systems. My presentation will be based on a review of relevant academic and policy literature related to human health impacts
and environmental implications of thermal treatment of municipal waste (the processes by which energy is recovered from waste materials). I will apply insights from this literature to the case of
a recently approved plan by the regional municipality of Durham, Ontario for a waste to energy (WTE) facility.

My tentative conclusion is that the introduction of ‘recovery’ into municipal waste management systems creates new dynamics between human and environmental health impacts, which in turn present more nuanced and context specific opportunities for policy coalitions to negotiate desired outcomes:
- nuanced in as much as WTE is no longer perceived of in principle as a negative component of waste management systems and is therefore no principle as a negative component of waste management systems and is therefore no longer rejected outright with no consideration for any environmental or economic benefits that might result; and
- context specific in as much as whether or not WTE will ultimately be of environmental benefit depends on the nature of local waste management systems within which it will operate."

"In this presentation I explore qualitative aspects of wasting, that is, the process of divesting or ridding oneself of items that are no longer of use or value.  Through a review of “Geographies of Waste” literature, I aim to demonstrate how social relations and perceptions of self can influence how household and personal items transition from being of value to waste.  My premise for this presentation, and my research, is that whether items within the municipal waste stream are perceived of as resources is not entirely dependent upon their tangible, material characteristics, but also upon how they are viewed by and affect the individuals responsible for waste management (waste actors).  Research reveals very different attitudes and behaviours towards re-use of personal and household items compared to composting of food waste, to name but two fractions of the municipal waste stream.  Levers governments can use to promote sustainable waste management practices are further problematized by households paying for a municipal waste management service while simultaneously providing their own unpaid labour.

Municipal waste management decisions are typically guided by the waste hierarchy, a framework used to minimise environmental externalities and optimise resource potential of waste.  The waste hierarchy positions disposal (typically to landfill) as the option of last resort and in turn favours: reducing waste arisings; reuse; recycling and composting; and energy recovery.  Social perception of different waste hierarchy components also varies considerably and can thus affect whether or how they are implemented.  For example, public attitudes towards incineration or the presence of scavengers may influence the balance between energy recovery and waste re-use / recycling, respectively.

In summary, social construction processes influence how waste actors perceive of waste and its attendant risks and benefits, which in turn affects their decisions concerning its management at household, community and municipal scales.  I propose that a more holistic understanding of the waste hierarchy can be gained by applying aspects of Actor Network Theory (ANT) to waste management issues."

We present research findings from an investigation of Ontario’s social housing sector, based on qualitative evidence from in depth interviews with social housing practitioners.  Across the Province challenges associated with social housing regeneration are increasing, whereas funding from federal, provincial and municipal sources is waning.  From a legacy of mono-tenure public housing estates the sector is transitioning towards market oriented housing developments.  These different manifestations of development processes and patterns represent shifts in ideological underpinning, which are occurring within a context of: devolution of responsibility for social housing policy from provincial to municipal government; diminishing and /or variable public funding commitments; aging housing stock; and increasing proportions of tenants with high and multiple support needs. 

The interaction of these factors with local socio-economic characteristics creates differences in how regeneration challenges manifest themselves across the Province.  Market oriented housing developments may provide a long term solution to meeting social housing need, but will require a more socially entrepreneurial culture within the sector, supported by a flexible, outcome based policy framework.  The social housing practitioners interviewed recognised the need to broaden skill levels within their organisations, either by working more closely with partner organisations or increasing the scale of operations.  We offer policy recommendations to support social housing providers to implement these strategies and address regeneration challenges.

I am lead author and primary researcher for ReWaRP, which  involves a series of social scientific studies concerning the use of waste as a resource, including if and how to incorporate waste to energy (WTE) into more sustainable waste management practices. 

ReWaRP is led by faculty and students from Western University and the University of Toronto - funded by Western University and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).  The purpose is to connect with waste management decision-makers, conduct research that is meaningful to them, and mobilize that research through this website, workshops, webinars, along with more traditional academic outets.  The project has been underway since 2012, and received SSHRC funding in the Spring of 2013.

Despite progress in residential waste diversion, residual waste – that fraction which cannot be recycled or composted – must continue to be managed by municipalities. Zero waste and environmental groups worry that waste-to-energy (WtE) incinerators discourage diversion, while both incineration and landfill have been stigmatized in the popular consciousness such that WtE incinerators in particular are being cancelled more often than they are approved. We conducted a mail-back survey of 217 residents in Toronto, Durham and Peel, Ontario, to understand attitudes toward diversion, levels of support for WtE incineration and WtE landfill (landfill gas recovery) facilities, and predictors of facility support. Contrary to experiences elsewhere, diversion seems threatened by WtE when measured as attitudes with 18%, and 14% agreeing that they would be less inclined to divert recyclable/compostable materials if they knew materials went to a WtE landfill or incinerator. When forced to choose between four options landfill or incineration with and without energy recovery, WtE incineration is most preferred (65%) and landfill without WtE is the least preferred option (61%). However, measurement has a large influence on public opinion results in the sense that support for WtE incineration drops to 43% when asked as a ''vote in favor " question and to only 36% when measured as a 4-item index of support. When the indexes of support for landfill and WtE incineration are modeled, the prominence of odor in the landfill model distinguishes it from the WtE incinerator model which is dominated more by community and concern about health effects. Implications for policy are discussed, particularly mandatory diversion targets to accompany WtE.

Butterfly is an Asian and Migrant Sex Workers Support Network based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The organization was founded upon the belief that migrant sex workers, like all workers, are entitled to respect and human rights. The following essay on Butterfly Voices was written by the project’s co-creators, Alvis Choi and Elene Lam, and details the creative energies, political vision, and methodological steps that went into bringing the project to life.

This paper is born from the premise that the desacralisation of nature is a significant contributor to our current environmental crisis. The first section examines how I arrive at this assertion, beginning with a sampling of societal structures and major developments in humanity’s history accompanied by an assessment of the intersection of religious belief and environmental praxis in each of them. It provides a brief review of societal and religious factors that have shaped Western culture, focussing on those aspects that specifically influence how we relate to the natural environment. The paper then turns to the resacralisation of nature and how it may influence environmental praxis in the future.  It explores emerging spiritual movements and revisits Christianity, evaluating how their belief systems define the human/nature relationship and how these relationships translate into environment awareness, practices and activism.  A literature review was accompanied by interviews with residents of Wakefield, Quebec, a growing rural community that attracts people of all ages who choose to embrace environmentally sustainable lifestyles, often based on spiritual or religious foundations.  My research concluded that while adherents of emerging spiritual movements typically embrace a deep sense of interconnection with the natural world, and consider themselves to be living within a sacred natural environment, this is oftentimes manifested in ritual activity rather than positive environmental action.  For those who do exhibit positive environmental behaviour, it appears to be based on a shared ontology that defines a respect and reverence for nature.  Many of my research participants chose to define this ontology in spiritual or religious terms, insisting on the presence of the divine in the natural world.  However, this was not universal: those participants who did not identify as religious or spiritual shared both the ontology and the positive environmental praxis.