Academic literature on the topic 'Plans, Can.: Toronto'

Does the border between the United States and Canada make a difference? To a political scientist it does for the obvious reason: the border defines two different political entities with different forms of government, different political customs and conventions. Two attempts in the first thirty years of the twentieth century to change the structure of the government of the City of Toronto illustrate the difference the border can make. The two proposals, commission government and city manager government, had originated with municipal reformers in the United States during the Progressive Era. The main idea behind both plans was to concentrate the executive and legislative authority in one governing unit. Commission and city manager government, however, attracted only a few supporters in the City despite their extreme popularity in the United States. City government in Toronto was not considered as bad as the government in those cities in the United States that had changed to new forms. Moreover, the proposals were American innovations and Toronto politicians were wary of American fads, especially ones like these which were drawn "from the uncertain spheres of political theory."

According to the Canadian Emergencies act, a national emergency is an urgent, critical situation that threatens the health and safety of Canadians (Department of Justice of Canada, 2022). Emergencies can also take on many forms: pandemics, natural disasters, civil unrest, or armed conflict. Currently, the Provincial Emergency Response Plan implemented by the Chief of Emergency Management Ontario is the framework that keeps Ontarians safe, allowing for organizations and municipalities to organize disaster relief, send out emergency alerts, and educate Ontario residents on emergency preparedness (PERP, 2019). This paper explores how serious games can prepare the public for emergencies based on response frameworks currently in use in metropolitan Ontario, Canada (cities such as Toronto, Ottawa, and Hamilton). This example was selected because it represents modern urban settings that require response plans and provides a framework that can be used to elaborate on. This paper will present the positive features of serious game applications concerning public safety and emergency management education. Case studies of serious game applications currently used for public health and safety purposes will be examined. Serious games may be a useful instrument for public safety education to enhance existing emergency preparedness and public safety education frameworks.

How can the health sector support Canada's net-zero ambition? As the Honourable Steven Guilbeault has clarified, if Canada is to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, we will need “all-hands-on-deck.” Fiona A. Miller, Professor & Director at the Centre for Sustainable Health Systems, University of Toronto in Canada, explores Canada's net-zero ambition, looking in particular at the role of the health sector in decarbonisation. However, achieving Canada's net-zero ambition of neutral greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 is a complex and challenging goal that requires a whole-of-society approach. The initiative calls for all companies operating in Canada to voluntarily commit to developing and implementing a plan to achieve Canada's net-zero ambition, supported by clear technical standards and public reporting requirements. So far, the 2030 emissions reduction plan aims at “clean air and good jobs, a healthy environment and a strong economy.” The problem lies in the significant gap in the Federal Government's plans: the health sector's direct contribution to the net-zero transition. Healthcare is a highly resource-intensive and polluting industry, estimated at 5.2% of global emissions and increasing. Moreover, Canada's health sector is estimated to be the second most carbon-intensive in the world after that of the U.S. There is clearly work to do, Professor Miller evaluates.

Biomass production for energy from short rotation forestry plantations can contribute to Ontario and Canada's objectives of reducing CO2 emissions. Technologies aimed at production and conversion of this biomass have progressed considerably, but large scale plantations are needed to obtain reliable figures regarding yields and costs, as well as to provide venues for testing equipment and to demonstrate the technology to growers. A project initiated by the Faculty of Forestry, University of Toronto will establish a number of prototype willow plantations on private land, to meet these needs. The objectives of the project, progress to date and the long-term plans are presented. Key words: SRIC, short rotation forestry, demonstration, willow, energy biomass

The application of psychological science in vast majority of interdisciplinary programs becomes all-embracing in the western societies. Nowadays, the word mental health has a broader meaning to it and touches each and every aspect of human life. Consequently, anything that affects our mental well-being can be a subject of general or specific studies to find out the level of its importance and the extent to which it affects the quality of our lives. Most of the government programs provide funding for mental health researches that can improve lives of many members of the society. The following steps of the government can assess how to improve the plans, and in particular, the positive outcome of each program based on the person’s needs. In this descriptive paper, the attempt is to provide some information on needs assessment, planning and follow-up in one of the programs funded by the City of Toronto, which is mainly designed to assist clients with mental health and substance use issues to obtain and maintain housing and get stabilized in their daily life.

Abstract OBJECTIVE This study was conducted to understand the experiences of intimate partner violence among women from Portuguese-speaking countries living in the Greater Toronto Area. METHOD A social phenomenological study was conducted with ten Portuguese-speaking women who had experienced intimate partner violence who were selected by community centre leaders. The interviews were transcribed, translated and analysed by categories. RESULTS The consequences of violence included health problems, effects on children, and negative feelings among the victims. Factors preventing the women from leaving abusive partners included religious beliefs, challenging daily jobs, and the need to take care of their husband. Factors that encouraged them to leave included getting support and calling the police. Some women expressed hope for the future either with their husband. Others, desired divorce or revenge. Their plans to rebuild their lives without their husband included being happy, learning English, and being financially stable. CONCLUSION Using these findings can implicate in the improvement of care for these women.

Among all atmospheric hazards, heat is the most deadly. With such recent notable heat events as the Chicago Heat Wave of 1995, much effort has gone into redeveloping both the methods by which it is determined whether a day will be “oppressive,” as well as the mitigation plans that are implemented when an oppressive day is forecast to occur. This article describes the techniques that have been implemented in the development of new synoptic-based heat watch–warning systems. These systems are presently running for over two dozen locations worldwide, including Chicago, Illinois; Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Rome, Italy; and Shanghai, China; with plans for continued expansion. Compared to traditional systems based on arbitrary thresholds of one or two meteorological variables, these new systems account for the local human response by focusing upon the identification of the weather conditions most strongly associated with historical increases in mortality. These systems must be constructed based on the premise that weather conditions associated with increased mortality show considerable variability on a spatial scale. In locales with consistently hot summers, weather/mortality relationships are weaker, and it is only the few hottest days each year that are associated with a response. In more temperate climates, relationships are stronger, and a greater percentage of days can be associated with an increase in mortality. Considering the ease of data transfer via the World-Wide Web, the development of these systems includes Internet file transfers and Web page creation as components. Forecasts of mortality and recommendations to call excessive-heat warnings are available to local meteorological forecasters, local health officials, and other civic authorities, who ultimately determine when warnings are called and when intervention plans are instituted.

Oil refineries, producing a large variety of products, are considered as one of the main sources of air contaminants such as sulfur oxides (SOx), hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxides (NOx), and carbon dioxide (CO2), which are primarily caused by fuel combustion. Gases emanated from the combustion of fuel in an oil refinery need to be reduced, as it poses an environmental hazard. Several strategies can be applied in order to mitigate emissions and meet environmental regulations. This study proposes a mathematical programming model to derive the optimal pollution control strategies for an oil refinery, considering various reduction options for multiple pollutants. The objective of this study is to help decision makers select the most economic pollution control strategy, while satisfying given emission reduction targets. The proposed model is tested on an industrial scale oil refinery sited in North Toronto, Ontario, Canada considering emissions of NOx, SOx, and CO2. In this analysis, the dispersion of these air pollutants is captured using a screening model (SCREEN3) and a non-steady state CALPUFF model based on topographical and meteorological conditions. This way, the impacts of geographic location on the concentration of pollutant emissions were examined in a realistic way. The numerical experiments showed that the optimal production and pollution control plans derived from the proposed optimization model can reduce NOx, SOx, and CO2 emission by up to 60% in exchange of up to 10.7% increase in cost. The results from the dispersion models verified that these optimal production and pollution control plans may achieve a significant reduction in pollutant emission in a large geographic area around the refinery site.

AimThis qualitative study investigates how the Electronic Patient-Reported Outcome (ePRO) mobile application and portal system, designed to capture patient-reported measures to support self-management, affected primary care provider workflows.BackgroundThe Canadian health system is facing an ageing population that is living with chronic disease. Disruptive innovations like mobile health technologies can help to support health system transformation needed to better meet the multifaceted needs of the complex care patient. However, there are challenges with implementing these technologies in primary care settings, in particular the effect on primary care provider workflows.MethodsOver a six-week period interdisciplinary primary care providers (n=6) and their complex care patients (n=12), used the ePRO mobile application and portal to collaboratively goal-set, manage care plans, and support self-management using patient-reported measures. Secondary thematic analysis of focus groups, training sessions, and issue tracker reports captured user experiences at a Toronto area Family Health Team from October 2014 to January 2015.FindingsKey issues raised by providers included: liability concerns associated with remote monitoring, increased documentation activities due to a lack of interoperability between the app and the electronic patient record, increased provider anxiety with regard to the potential for the app to disrupt and infringe upon appointment time, and increased demands for patient engagement. Primary care providers reported the app helped to focus care plans and to begin a collaborative conversation on goal-setting. However, throughout our investigation we found a high level of provider resistance evidenced by consistent attempts to shift the app towards fitting with existing workflows rather than adapting much of their behaviour. As health systems seek innovative and disruptive models to better serve this complex patient population, provider change resistance will need to be addressed. New models and technologies cannot be disruptive in an environment that is resisting change.

<p><strong>Abstract.</strong> Social media platforms allow millions of people worldwide to instantly share their thoughts online. Many people use social media to share traffic related experiences and events with online posts. A large amount of traffic related data can be obtained from these online posts &amp;ndash; especially geosocial media data, where posts are tagged with geolocation information such as coordinates or place names. By extracting traffic events from geosocial media data, drivers can adapt to changing traffic conditions, while traffic management departments can propose timely and effective plans to improve traffic conditions. Most of the existing studies query traffic-related information based on a list of single keywords, which result in large amounts of noisy data &amp;ndash; negative data containing one or more traffic-related keywords, but do not actually represent real-world traffic events. This paper aims to filter noisy data by mining association rules among words in positive data containing messages representing traffic events. Messages are more likely to be true traffic events if they follow the co-occurrence pattern of words mined from positive samples. A case study was conducted in Toronto, Canada using Twitter data. The tweets queried by the association rules were classified into non-traffic event, traffic accidents, roadwork, severe weather conditions, and special events with an 85% accuracy based on supervised machine learning methods. Compared with hourly average travel speed data, 81% of detected events were identified as real-world traffic events. This research sheds light on traffic condition monitoring in smart transportation platforms, which plays an important role for smart cities.</p>

Theory is fine, but practical experience is the heart of real learning. This chapter provides—as much as a book can—some real-life experience through seven case histories of how wastes are managed. The case histories describe a state-of-the-art materials recycling facility, five waste disposal facilities in three different countries (the United States, Canada, and Sweden), and a large mass-burn incinerator. Choosing which of the many thousands of landfills in existence to include was a difficult task. Three municipal solid waste landfills are described. The first, Fresh Kills landfill in New York City, was constructed in 1948 and represents older landfill technology. The second, a new landfill in East Carbon County, Utah, was built in 1992 and incorporates the latest engineered barriers and features of a modern landfill. The third is being developed in a large, abandoned open-pit mine in California. In addition, we discuss a landfill and treatment center for hazardous waste, located in Swan Hills, Alberta. A unique Swedish facility for disposing radioactive wastes rounds out the suite of landfill case histories; this facility takes a very innovative approach to waste disposal and is included to provide a different perspective on this topic. Materials recovery facilities (MRFs) are the vital heart of modern integrated municipal waste management systems. Without MRFs, recycling on any practical scale would not be possible; it is here that recyclable materials are collected and made ready for sale to secondary markets. One of the most innovative recycle centers in North America has recently been constructed in the city of Guelph in southern Ontario (Guelph, n,d.). It offers good insight into what can be achieved through recycling, and the equipment that is involved. The city of Guelph, with a population of 95,000, is situated about 60 kilometers west of Toronto. In the mid-1980s, the city began studying ways to reduce the amount of waste being placed in its landfill. These studies received a major impetus in 1991, when the province of Ontario developed a waste reduction plan that required municipalities to reduce the amount of garbage being placed in landfills by 50% by the year 2000. A number of pilot studies were conducted before the present approach was selected.

Large natural gas fired combined cycle electric power plants, while being an increasingly efficient and cost effective technology, are traditionally large consumers of water resources, while also discharging cooling tower blowdown at a similar rate. Water use is mostly attributed to the heat rejection needs of the gas turbine generator, the steam turbine generator, and the steam cycle condenser. Cooling with air, i.e. dry cooling, instead of water can virtually eliminate the environmental impact associated with water usage. Commissioned in the fall of 2010 with this in mind, the Halton Hills Generating Station located in the Greater Toronto West Area, Ontario, Canada, is a nominally-rated 700 Megawatt combined cycle electric generating station that is 100 percent cooled using various air-cooled heat exchangers. The resulting water consumption and wastewater discharge of this power plant is significantly less than comparably sized electric generating plants that derive cooling from wet methods (i.e, evaporative cooling towers). To incorporate dry cooling into such a power plant, it is necessary to consider several factors that play important roles both during plant design as well as construction and commissioning of the plant equipment, including the dry cooling systems. From the beginning a power plant general arrangement and space must account for dry cooling’s increase plot area requirements; constraints therein may render air cooling an impossible solution. Second, air cooling dictates specific parameters of major and auxiliary equipment operation that must be understood and coordinated upon purchase of such equipment. Until recently traditional wet cooling has driven standard designs, which now, in light of dry cooling’s increase in use, must be re-evaluated in full prior to purchase. Lastly, the construction and commissioning of air-cooling plant equipment is a significant effort which demands good planning and execution.

A preliminary design and feasibility study has been conducted for a 200 kWe solar thermal power plant for operation in Ontario. The objective of this study is to assess the feasibility of small-scale commercial solar thermal power production in areas of relatively low insolation. The design has been developed for a convention centre site in Toronto, Ontario. The plant utilizes a portion of the large flat roof area of the convention centre to accommodate the collector array. Each power plant module provides a constant electrical output of 200 kWe throughout the year. The system is capable of maintaining the constant output during periods of low insolation, including night-time hours and cloudy periods, through a combination of thermal storage and a supplemental natural gas heat source. The powerplant utilized the organic Ranking cycle (ORC) to allow for relatively low source temperatures from the solar collector array. A computer simulation model was developed to determine the performance of the system year-round using the utilizability-solar fraction method. The ORC powerplant uses R245fa as the working fluid and operates at an overall efficiency of 11.1%. The collector is a non-concentrating evacuated tube type and operates at a temperature of 90°C with an average annual efficiency of 23.9%. The system is capable of achieving annual solar fractions of 0.686 to 0.874 with collector array areas ranging from 30 000 to 40 000 m2 and storage tank sizes ranging from 3.8 to 10 × 106L respectively. The lowest possible cost of producing electricity from the system is $0.393 CAD/kWh. The results of the study suggest that small-scale solar thermal plants are physically viable for year round operation in Ontario. The proposed system may be economically feasible given Ontario’s fixed purchase price of $0.42 CAD/kWh, but the cost of producing electricity from the system is highly dependent on the price of the solar collector.

We believe the climate crisis will be resolved in cities. Today, while cities occupy only 2% of the Earth's surface, 57% of the world's population lives in cities, and by 2050, it will jump to 68% (UN, 2018). Currently, cities consume over 75% of natural resources, accumulate 50% of the global waste and emit up to 80% of greenhouse gases (Ellen MacArthur Foundation, 2017). Cities generate 70% of the global gross domestic product and are significant drivers of economic growth (UN-Habitat III, 2016). At the same time, cities sit on the frontline of natural disasters such as floods, storms and droughts (De Sherbinin et al., 2007; Major et al., 2011; Rockström et al., 2021). One of the sustainability pathways to reduce the environmental consequences of the current extract-make-dispose model (or the "linear economy") is a circular economy (CE) model. A CE is defined as "an economic system that is based on business models which replace the 'end-of-life' concept with reducing, alternatively reusing, recycling and recovering materials in production/distribution and consumption processes" (Kirchherr et al., 2017, p. 224). By redesigning production processes and thereby extending the lifespan of goods and materials, researchers suggest that CE approaches reduce waste and increase employment and resource security while sustaining business competitiveness (Korhonen et al., 2018; Niskanen et al., 2020; Stahel, 2012; Winans et al., 2017). Organizations such as the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and Circle Economy help steer businesses toward CE strategies. The CE is also a political priority in countries and municipalities globally. For instance, the CE Action Plan, launched by the European Commission in 2015 and reconfirmed in 2020, is a central pillar of the European Green Deal (European Commission, 2015, 2020). Additionally, more governments are implementing national CE strategies in China (Ellen MacArthur Foundation, 2018), Colombia (Government of the Republic of Colombia, 2019), Finland (Sitra, 2016), Sweden (Government Offices of Sweden, 2020) and the US (Metabolic, 2018, 2019), to name a few. Meanwhile, more cities worldwide are adopting CE models to achieve more resource-efficient urban management systems, thereby advancing their environmental ambitions (Petit-Boix & Leipold, 2018; Turcu & Gillie, 2020; Vanhuyse, Haddaway, et al., 2021). Cities with CE ambitions include, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Paris, Toronto, Peterborough (England) and Umeå (Sweden) (OECD, 2020a). In Europe, over 60 cities signed the European Circular Cities Declaration (2020) to harmonize the transition towards a CE in the region. In this policy brief, we provide insights into common challenges local governments face in implementing their CE plans and suggest recommendations for overcoming these. It aims to answer the question: How can the CE agenda be governed in cities? It is based on the results of the Urban Circularity Assessment Framework (UCAF) project, building on findings from 25 interviews, focus group discussions and workshops held with different stakeholder groups in Umeå, as well as research on Stockholm's urban circularity potential, including findings from 11 expert interviews (Rezaie, 2021). Our findings were complemented by the Circular Economy Lab project (Rezaie et al., 2022) and experiences from working with municipal governments in Sweden, Belgium, France and the UK, on CE and environmental and social sustainability.

The regeneration of Zorrotzaurre is the largest current urban development project in the city of Bilbao. Since the final Master Plan for the project was approved in 2012, progress in the development has already resulted in the opening of the Deusto canal and the construction and renovation of buildings on the northern and southern parts of the island. However, certain challenges have arisen throughout this phase that must be solved in order to guarantee further successful development of the island. These challenges can be summarised in four key factors: Governance, Talent Creation, Real Estate and Mobility. This report gathers a case analysis of six city districts in order to obtain pragmatic and robust findings and recommendations for the development process in Zorrotzaurre: Waterfront Toronto (Canada), 22@ -Barcelona (Spain), HafenCity – Hamburg (Germany), Innovation District- Porto (Portugal), Kalasatama -Helsinki (Finland) and Innovation District - Rotterdam (The Netherlands). The result of the analysis leads to seven core conclusions: Centrality multiactor spaces as governance structures for district development Holistic system for a bottom-up approach and citizens’ participation Comprehensive information sharing system Importance of district development facilitators and agency Living lab approach Compliance of real estate with social and environmental standards Mobility as an essential part of the district development process The analysis is part of Bilbao Next Lab, the action research project facilitated by Orkestra in collaboration with Bilbao City Council in order to advance within the smart specialization process of the city. According to the cogeneration model of action research, this report will be one of the contributions of the team of researchers from Orkestra to the process with the aim of defining specific policy instruments and actions for the development of the Zorrotzaurre district. Specific workshops, arranged by researchers, will take place in 2020 for such purpose.