Isn’t that how you build a case? You load it with proven fact

Our ability to predict the weather, actually our ability to predict almost anything long-term, is feeble at best. I just finished Dan Gardner’s Future Babble: Why Expert Predictions Fail – and Why We Believe Them Anyway and it was loaded with information and statistics about how our predictions about the stock market, housing values, human demographics … pretty much anything and everything, fail. Most of the time we would be as successful if we flipped a coin when making these decisions.

Towards the end of the book Gardner starts discussing climate change, a favourite topic of mine. Gardner believes in climate change but he is skeptical of the climate models to forecast changes in our climate years, decades or centuries out.

“Climate scientists are quite blunt that there is lots about climate that science does not understand, which is precisely why scientists find the field exciting to work in. Combine that ignorance with the almost indescribably complex interactions at work in the massive, non-linear systems that make up climate and there are huge uncertainties woven into every climate prediction. … These models may overestimate the extent of climate change and the damage it does. But the may also underestimate it…”

But even if science is underestimating climate change there are still some other benefits to doing projects that lower ones carbon footprint. Gardner argues the economics, social and environmental cost of carbon accounting schemes. ‘Carbon sequestration’ (pumping CO2 into the ground) will be a waste of money if our climate predictions do not pan out. But he argues the opposite case for methane capture off landfills – it’s win-win-win. Economically you make/save money by capturing a resource naturally emitted from a landfill. Socially, the harmful methane is captured from our atmosphere and has decreases our negative health impacts. And environmentally one reuses a gas that would otherwise be harmful to the atmosphere for electricity production.

Carbon taxes actually have a similar effect, or they can. Raise the carbon tax and cut other taxes. Under this scheme one then also raises the “effective price of fossil fuels thus making alternative energy more competitive.” Europe got it right. After the price crash of oil in the mid-80’s Europe decided to keep fuel prices artificially high with taxes. Thus research and development in conservation and alternative fuels continued. And what do we see today? Alternative energy in Europe is competitive, and they now rely on it and have to rely less on fossil fuels.

I enjoyed Gardner’s book. At times it was a little overwhelming with the amount of data he presented debunking our science of predictions, but again that was the point. He wanted to hammer the point home that we cannot make predictions about our future. The future is chaotic, non-liner … unpredictable, and as a scientist/engineer I find that exciting.

Why is flying the most sustainable?

The triple bottom line analysis consider the economic (the raw cost of travel), the environmental (my carbon footprint) and equity (the social cost).

The Economic Cost

I decided to redeem some travel rewards so the flight cost me $161.88 (for taxes, security and admin fees). The least expensive ticket one can book according to Expedia this morning was $499. When I looked earlier in the week both Air Canada and Porter had seat sales on; flights were $338. Given that I booked the flight earlier in the week I’ll use the $338 value in my analysis.

Via rail is Ontario’s only rail carrier. You can take the GO train within the Greater Toronto Area but it does go beyond the GTA borders. When I looked at booking it was $155, but when searching today it was $202.50. (And knowing me I would have bought my ticket at the station today!)

If I was going to drive I’d have to spend $117.68. According to fueleconomy.gov my car requires premium gasoline and goes 11.5km/L on the highway. The round trip distance is 888km and for simplicity I’ll say that the drive is all highway kilometres (10km total is not on the highway). Thus it will require 78L of fuel (round up to 80L and ignore any congestion encountered on the way). Gas was $1.47.1 at my corner gas station according to Toronto’s Gas Prices this morning.

Summary: Flight: $161.88, Train $155, Drive $117.68

The Environmental Cost

The carbon footprint cost. How much damage am I doing by going to Ottawa? According to Carbon Finance one could sell a tonne of carbon on the European market for €12.32 or $16.64CAD today.

When I booked my flight Air Canada stated me that the total carbon footprint for my portion of the flight round trip was 0.21tonnes of CO2 emissions for a value of $3.49.

According to CarbonFund.org each km of long distance rail travel emits 0.49lbs/mile or 0.12kg/km. The Toronto Travel Guide says it’s 446km, which totals 107kg (.107tonnes) of CO2 emissions round trip or $1.78.

The footprint of my car is 174g/km according to NextGreenCar but that is based on a combined urban and highway driving. For simplicity I’ll use this value, so for my 888km my calculated footprint would be 154kg (.154tonnes) of CO2 emissions, bringing the total cost to $2.56.

Summary: Flight $3.49, Train $1.78 or Driving $2.56.

The Equity Cost

It comes down to what I value my time at. I remember when I wrote my thesis (in 2007) that the average value for an hour of work was $20. I could have valued at what my current salary pays me at, or I could have been a little more conservative and used my ski coaching salary. Both of these were greater than $20 so I think I’ll stick with that (Note: I do value my time more than $20/hr! )

Ignoring the time it takes to get to each mode of travel here is what the cost breakdown is for travelling to Ottawa.

My flight is 1hr gate to gate, probably 40mins in the air. Roundtrip, $40.

The train varies between a 4 hr&24min trip and 4hr&48min trip, for an average of 4hrs&36mins. Cost of my time to take the train roundtrip is $184.

For the drive lets assume I drive the speed limit, the 444km trip would take just under 4.5hours. Round trip the total cost would be $190.

Summary: Flight $40, Train $184 or Drive $190.

From the table you can see that the cost of flying is by far the cheaper option. Even if I only valued my time at $10 it is still significantly cheaper to fly, driving is $30 more than flying and taking the train is more than $60 more. However, if I’d had to pay for the full price ticket (at $338) it would make flying the least viable option; I guess that reminds us all to collect and redeem those travel miles!

(Note: This was a quick, basic way to calculate my triple bottom line total cost of travel. I do not claim that it is the most accurate method to calculate the cost of traveling. This exercise was merely meant to demonstrate the ability to account not just for economic costs but also the environmental and equity (social) cost).

From the Climatic Science Email Scandal to recent Tornadoes in the US and New Zealand, the debate on human-induced climate change seems to be in the news most days. How much of an influence do human’s have on climate change? What about the influence of La Niña?  Is there anything else contributing to these extreme weather events?

Who’s to blame for Climate Change?

Of the things I read this week, this quote really stuck with me:

“If you look at the past 60 years of data, the number of tornadoes is increasing significantly, but it’s agreed upon by the tornado community that it’s not a real increase,” said Grady Dixon, assistant professor of meteorology and climatology at Mississippi State University.

“It’s having to do with better (weather tracking) technology, more population, the fact that the population is better educated and more aware. So we’re seeing them more often,” Dixon said.

Tornadoes are a combination of bad thunderstorms, wind coming from the opposite direction of the thunderstorm and a strong updraft. But the number of thunderstorms is increasing. So are the number of wind storms. I agree with the science of tornadoes I disagree that the sole reason we are recording more tornadoes is because of our ability to measure them.

Given that the latest tornadoes in the US were about a mile wide, some of the biggest ever recorded I think tornadoes, like other natural disasters are changing, and not for the better.

I’ve been reading Tim Flannery’s, The Weather Makers, a book about “How we are changing climate and what it means for life on earth.” It’s “a straightforward and powerfully written look at the connection between climate change and global warming” (Publishers Weekly on Amazon).

The evidence is overwhelming from our consumption of coal for electricity, our desire to drive our personal automobiles, our need to acquire ‘stuff’ that we are affecting the weather on earth. Every time we ‘consume’ we pump harmful CO2 back into the air, causing the planet to warm, oceans to dry up, glaciers to melt, which in turn affects the precipitation patterns (less rain here, a little to a lot more over there).

What do we do? Do we live with an increased number of storms? With more intense storms? Or can we admit that there is a change in weather patterns and do anything and everything we can to minimize their impacts?

Here are a couple of highlights from my favourite chapter, Trends in Greenhouse Gas Emissions:

“a year with increased consumption of goods and services, low fuel prices, severe summer and winter weather conditions, nuclear plant closures, and lower precipitation feeding hydroelectric dams, there would likely be proportionally greater fossil fuel consumption than in a year with poor economic performance, high fuel prices, mild temperatures, and increased output from nuclear and hydroelectric plants”

“In the longer-term, energy consumption patterns respond to changes that affect the scale of consumption (e.g., population, number of cars, and size of houses), the efficiency with which energy is used in equipment (e.g., cars, power plants, steel mills, and light bulbs) and behavioral choices (e.g., walking, bicycling, or telecommuting to work instead of driving).”

“The increase in the cost of fuels to generate electricity translated into an increase in the price of electricity, leading to a decrease in electricity consumption across all sectors except the commercial sector. The increase in transportation fuel prices led to a decrease in vehicle miles traveled (VMT) and a 5.5 percent decrease in transportation fossil fuel combustion emissions from 2007 to 2008″

The full report can be found here.

The conference started out with David Miller’s last appearance of the Mayor of Toronto. He spoke about the initiatives Toronto was undertaking to reduce their carbon footprint, including the waste diversion programs and gas collection from landfill sites. He spoke passionately about being the leader of the C40 cities. Miller was honoured by the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, Donna Cansfield, and Stockwell Day, the Minister of the Asia-Pacific Gateway. Toronto can only hope that the succeeding mayor will be as passionate about sustainability (ha!).

Sustainable Electricity. Sustainable Transportation. Sustainable Cities. Building Sustainable Lives for all citizens

… Was the theme of the first day. Barry LePartner, somewhat of an alarmist, spoke about the failing infrastructure in the US. He predicts that the Minneapolis bridge disaster might just be the first of many. Dalton McGuinty lunch speech was about Ontario’s leadership in sustainable energy, with the FIT program and promotion of electric vehicles. His speech may have been more credible had he left the new Harry Potter movie out of his speech.

The second day was about the past/current (?) financial crisis, and was disappointing in comparison to the first day. Speakers skirted the main topics ‘Have we seen the bottom?’ and ‘What are the fundamentals for Sustained Growth?’. Perhaps these issues were avoided because commenting on them would be insulting both the Canadian and American Economic Advisers.

The highlight for me over the two days was an interview between Amanda Lang and Martin Wolf. Wolf spoke to the failing US economy and the reliance of the Canadian Economy on the US (given that 75% of Canadian exports go to the US). But it was not just the hard facts that he laid out, he also shared his views that the Developed Nations are naive to think they can continue on the path their on; the Developing and Emerging Countries will not only overtake the Developed Nations but they will surpass and leave them behind in their dust. He couldn’t repeat enough that we have to change the way we currently conduct business. He eluded to the fact that we value the ‘wrong’ things, we are too much of a commercial society that consumes meaningless goods. His candor and enthusiasm were welcomed by the crowd, especially in comparison to the high-level, reluctant speeches of his peers.

A more inclusive summary of the conference can be found here (shortly )

Pasternack, a lawyer and municipal policy adviser, admitted that he was not a climate science expert, but proved he was an expert on policy to help mitigate and adapt to climate change. One theme that Pasternack hammered home was the idea that climate change contributes to deteriorating infrastructure, changes in weather patterns, etc but that it is not the root cause in these changes.

Why Do We Need To Respond?

Cities, hubs of economic activity, generate the bulk of greenhouse gas emissions. That’s not surprising given that about 50% of the world lives in an urban environment. The C40 Cities, The Climate Leadership Group estimates that 75% of the total electricity use is in cities.

Not only do cities need to adapt due to the emissions they release, but also due to the changes in weather patterns. Extreme storms are causing electrical outages and washing out roads. Cities need to adapt their infrastructure to mitigate the climate change effects.

How Will Cities Respond?

The city of Toronto has come up with a mitigation and adaptation plan; they believe that the two go hand-in-hand to successfully combat climate change. From Ahead of the Storm, a City of Toronto a climate change adaptation strategy, the following Venn diagram was borne:

The C40 cities have all come up with mitigation and adaptation strategies. The C40 cities understand that cooperation and transparency are necessary to make real gains in combating climate change; the cities have made their climate change action plans publicly available.

In a perfect world cities would be making grounds mitigating the effects of climate change, instead cities are left pondering what the next steps are. Pasternack cited that insufficient funds, lack of consensus, unengaged stakeholders and legal impediments are thwarting city efforts. More than anything cities are powerless due to paramountcy and preemption.

The success of cities is held in balance with economic and social sustainability, but also environmental sustainability.

I’ll be there with the My Sustainable Canada team hopefully enjoying another epic day of skiing under blue sky and sunshine.

And as an added bonus it’s St. Paddy’s Day (my favourite holiday – ok it’s not a holiday, but a great day for celebration!) I’ll be drinking green beer in the village in honour of the earth and St Paddy’s Day!!

The Voluntary Human Extinction Movement

Towards the end of the article there was a small statement about the effects of children on the environment. The argument is that as you add another person to the planet you increase your carbon footprint by adding another person. Thus to really minimize your footprint on the earth you shouldn’t have children.

Meet VHEMT (pronounced vehement) a movement (and as they say, not an organization) to stop breeding.

“The Movement presents an encouraging alternative to the callous exploitation and wholesale destruction of Earth’s ecology […] the hopeful alternative to the extinction of millions of species of plants and animals is the voluntary extinction of one species: Homo sapiens… us. Each time another one of us decides to not add another one of us to the burgeoning billions already squatting on this ravaged planet, another ray of hope shines through the gloom. When every human chooses to stop breeding, Earth’s biosphere will be allowed to return to its former glory, and all remaining creatures will be free to live, die, evolve (if they believe in evolution), and will perhaps pass away, as so many of Nature’s “experiments” have done throughout the eons.”

Not for the faint at heart, but an interesting notion.

There might be some rational behind this. The Mayan’s predicted that the earth would see a ‘doomsday’ and mankind as we know it would be eliminated. Like the dinosaurs someone/something might be researching us in the future to uncover what caused our demise. The global warming scientists say that we are destroying our the fragile earth at an alarming rate, even calling it a ‘weapon of mass destruction‘. Some go as far to say that there is no way to reverse the damage, that we are on the path to destruction.

What are the options?

Having children is a personal decision, I’m not advocating either way. I have my opinions and will follow what I believe in. The obvious two options are have children or don’t have children. Another way of looking at it is for every couple have two children; replace yourself when you leave this earth. In the MACLEAN’s article they make a reference to the starving children in the developing countries and if we really are being selfless that we should adopt, since many of those families are large and cannot sustain themselves. Whatever decision you make just make sure it is the right one for you.

The strategy institute set out the following mandate to achieve the following through the variety of presentations:

1. Capitalize on infrastructure spending
2. Stimulate economic recovery
3. Enhance environmental sustainability
4. Assure accountability and transparency
5. Manage your risk
6. Attain greener energy
7. Build strategic partnerships
8. Measure performance of suppliers and vendors

The conference was a good balance of case studies and the creative science behind projects including, the necessity of public engagement, how to make a project successful, what climate change is doing to our infrastructure and how to effectively manage existing infrastructure.

The Keynote Address: Setting Priorities for the Improvement of National Infrastructure

The keynote address by Graeme Purves was brilliant and highlighted how climate change was affecting global infrastructure and then delved into some Scottish and UK examples. To set the priorities the Scottish government began with a framework, combining public perceptions with government priorities. In the end the government produced the National Planning Framework that highlighted the 14 essential projects that would benefit all Scottish residents; but Purves did state that at the at the municipal level the federal government was willing to engage in discussion about improving the local infrastructure, but that there would need to be a cost-sharing agreement. I think globally that is true that nationally infrastructure projects should be selected that benefit the country and at the regional and municipal level there can be cost-sharing agreements but that the entire infrastructure cost will not be borne by the national governments.

The Necessity of Public Engagement

My bf works in the digital marketing world so I get to learn a lot about the benefits from social media and public engagement from him. I believe that the engineering/public sector world is lagging in this area, but finally the trends of social media are catching on. From twitter to facebook to building a website that engages people to using mobile phones and including traditional public information sessions, all of these are essentials are key to capturing the greater audience for any infrastructure project. Three speakers discussed the importance of public engagement and social media.

1. Joseph Virgilio, a councillor in the Town of Markham spoke at length about social media and how the current mayor used it to capture the vote in Markham. Virgilio spoke about the successes of having an intuitive website and about creating social media campaigns; two of the most successful campaigns being the ‘Gridlock, Rapid Transit & You’ as well as the ‘Quest for the Best.’ Markham also successfully used an on-line voting system for the most recent mayoral election (will we see something like this in the next federal or provincial election?)
2. Kim Stephen’s the Program Director for the Water Sustainability Action Plan for BC weaved social media and public engagement through his presentation. Stephen’s didn’t mention specific social media programs in his presentation he did discuss the importance of them, including the website waterbalance.ca. Success did come from a ‘coffee table’ book, as Stephen’s described it, Living Water Smart that BC created to engage the public on the water crisis in BC.
3. Cathie O’Toole the CFO of The Halifax Regional Municipality also spoke to the benefits of social media. The infrastructure of Halifax, like many other Canadian cities, is aging and failing. Halifax is looking to find a balance between priority projects and what is important to the public.

How to Make a Project Successful

Several presentations pointed to the post-war through the 60’s build of Canadian cities, which means that we are in a second phase of rehabilitation and rebuilding. With all this construction it is important to set your project up for success from its initial conception. Three ideas were discussed regarding this, Public Private Partnerships (P3s), How to Pick the right consultant, and how important planning is.

1. P3’s are the standard now in BC says Sue Fimrite, Project Director of Partnerships BC, which is a subsidiary of the BC Ministry of Finance. From Design-Build all the way through including the management and operation BC has found was to mitigate construction and price risk through the use of P3s. The number of successes is immense but some of the hallmark projects include the Charles Jago Northern Sports Centre, The Sea-to-Sky Highway and the Abbotsford Regional Hospital and Cancer Centre.
2. John Haythorne presented on how to pick the right consultant to make your project a success. He is a partner with Fraser Milner Casgrain LLP and holds degrees in engineering and law, but more importantly has been involved in a variety of projects throughout his career. Briefly his strategies for effective selection for infrastructure project are:

• Align selection/evaluation criteria to goals for infrastructure
• Evaluate for value
• Use market competition to define scope
• Retain consultants early
• Use consultants to retain consultants
• Get meaningful references

3. Plan, Plan, Plan!! Jennifer Keesmaat a Partner of the Office for Urbanism gave a brilliant presentation on the necessity for planning. Perhaps I enjoyed this one most because of my love of engineering combined with all the knowledge I’ve gained from Phil about Marketing; presenting a plan for a major infrastructure project combines engineering with an effective presentation. Keesmaat drove home that projects are only successful with plans and the plans should be comprehensive, multi-disciplinary and collaborative. And the proof is in the case studies; all of the projects presented had success because they had well sought out plan.

How Climate Change is Affecting Our Infrastrucutre

More storms. More intense storms. More extreme weather. It is the reality of climate change. Gordon McBean the Director of Policy Studies of the Institute of Catastrophic Loss Reduction at the University of Western Ontario (my Alma matter) spoke extensively on climate change and how to prepare the existing and new infrastructure to cope with climate change. McBean’s key message, “The climate has changed, will continue to change and humans are the main cause.” From this we, engineers, scientists, planners, etc., must reduce the impact infrastructure has on climate and reduce the infrastructure’s vulnerability to a vulnerable, changing climate and its extremes. Climate change was a theme that ran through many of the presentations and is one of the key challenges facing many of Canada’s urban centres. Steve Dorey, VP of External Relations of Hydro One emphasized the critical role climate change will play and stated that “climate change is the key challenge of the developed world.”

Climate change is a reality and we are all being forced to deal with it. It simply is not just about changing what we are doing going forward but mitigating what we have done in the past.

Effective Management of Existing Infrastructure

“If you build it, they will come” – made famous by the Phil Alden Robinson movie Field of Dreams. But once you build it make sure you keep track of it. It was some what of a shock to hear that municipalities were catching up on tracking the construction of the post-war boom still. From initial construction through maintenance some of the projects had no organized records. However, some municipalities were the opposite, acting proactively to plan for how to build maintenance programs for their functional, existing infrastructure.

1. Cathie O’Toole of Halifax admitted that the city was poor at keeping track of their infrastructure in the past but that the future held the prospects of an organized data base to best manage their existing infrastructure and allow for the planning of new, effective infrastructure. From here she tied the presentation in with planning and its necessity for maximum efficiency
2. Colin Prang the Manager of Infrastructure Preservation for the City of Saskatoon. Saskatoon has been proactive with their pavements and has captured the notion of spending $1 at the right time and it saves you millions of dollars in the end. The focus for Mr. Prang is roads and he has set up an extensive evaluation system that rates pavements from very good to poor and from this he developed an extensive rehabilitation system to match his evaluation system. Saskatoon employs an extensive array of rehabilitation techniques from rut filling, to overlays, to complete reconstruction. Again the success of this program is its ability to effectively manage the existing road infrastructure and to be proactive with the restoration.
3. Steve Dorey also spoke to effective management of existing infrastructure and how it relates to energy in Ontario. The Ontario government has committed to the elimination of coal fired plants by 2015. Dorey stated that this would be a success with a commitment to ‘green’ energy and nuclear (although given the most recent announcement about nuclear this seems impossible). In order to effectively make the switch it was necessary for an evaluation of the existing coal fired plants; how much energy are they producing, where is fed to but also what other energy infrastructure could Ontario rely on, local and foreign.

Case Studies

1. Portland, Oregon: Known as one of the best US cities to live, Portland sent Karl Lisle, Sr. Planner, to talk about the success of a well planned city. Their slogan really sums it up well, “…we planned. it worked…” Ultimately the goal for Portland is to have everything within a 20 minute walk or bike, aka twenty-minute neighbourhoods. As they continue with the city, Portland is expanding its cycling and public transportation routes. Lisle believes their strategy can be applied globally; Build a sustainable economy through job growth, prosperity and a sustainable way of life.
2. Yellowknife, Northwest Territories: The Deputy Mayor Mark Heyck came to present. Before he opened his presentation he asked the audience if and when a more sustainable way of presenting would happen; the projectors consume a disproportionate share of heat and electricity. Yellowknife was named the most sustainable small city in Canada for 2008-9 by the Corporate Knight’s Magazine. Much like the twenty-minute community of Portland with a city of only 20,000 people Yellowknife is promoting a similar theme, have a compact city with easy access to biking and walking trails. Unfortunately unlike Portland, Yellowknife faces very harsh winters where people become much more car dependant.
3. Windsor BIIG/DRIC: Dave Wresinski the Project Planning Division Administrator of the Michigan Department of transportation presented on the proposed new Detroit River crossing. This is trans-national project that links Detroit and Windsor. With the Ambassador bridge reaching the end of its useful life and the tunnel unable to manage the capacity; jointly both the Canadian and American governments are investigating a new crossing. Without getting into too many details Wresinski discussed the challenges with the project including budgeting issues since two countries are involved and the fact that the current Ambassador bridge is privately owned and operated. Likely funding for this project will come for the private sector making this one of the first P3’s for Ontario.

I’m hoping I can attend again next year but also hope to see more on some of the larger cities infrastructure projects. There is a lot of interesting work coming out of California and I think all the Canadian Metropolis’ can learn from it. Other great infrastructure ideas that should be included:

• Tunneling – such as the Chanel Tunnel and the new Vancouver rail link between the airport and Burnaby …
• ‘Green’ Infrastructure – topics such as GFRC (glass fibre reinforced concrete), blast furnace slag, recycling old concrete & aggregate, using renewable resources …
• Changing the Transportation Culture – promoting active transportation in cities, telecommuting, webinar hosting …

There was a lot of great information at the conference and over the coming weeks I’ll expand some of the information.

Ontario with its cold winters and (usually) hot summers creates a unique environment growing some of the most delicious fruits and vegetables. And as our community awareness about global warming, climate change, etc increases so does the demand for the local farmers markets.

Tfmn.ca
The Toronto Farmers market network is an attempt to combat climate change while bringing the residents of Toronto Local Ontario Produce. Each week across the city there are various farmers markets, some open all year others are only seasonal.

Hot foods right now.
Asparagus. And soon to come strawberries. Mmm

List of Markets (Alphabetically)

Appletree Market
200 Eglinton Ave. W.
Thursdays, 3-7 pm, April 23-Oct 29 outdoors, Nov 5-April 22 indoors

BirchCliff Village Farmers’ Market
1512 Kingston Road (east of Warden)
Fridays, 3- 7 pm, June 5 to October 23, 2009

Birchcliff Village Indoor Market
1688 Kingston Road
Thu 12-7, Fri 12-7, Sat 10-5, Sun 11-5, Nov 2008-May 15, 2009

Bloor-Borden Farmers’ Market
Green P lot, Lippincott and Bloor St.
Wednesdays 3-7 pm, June 3 to October 28, 2009

Distillery District Farmers’ Market
55 Mill Street
Sundays, 10 am – 5 pm, late June to mid-Oct (exact 2009 dates tba)

Dufferin Grove Organic Farmers’ Market
873 Dufferin St. (in Dufferin Grove Park)
Thursdays, 3 – 7 pm, Open all year

East Lynn Farmers’ Market
1949 Danforth Avenue, near Woodbine (in East Lynn Park)
Thursdays, 3 – 7 pm, June 4 to October 29, 2009

East York Farmers’ Market
East York Civic Centre, 850 Coxwell Ave
Tuesdays, 8 am – 2 pm, May 22 to November 4, 2009

Etobicoke Farmers’ Market
Etobicoke Civic Centre, 399 The West Mall
Saturdays, 8 am – 2 pm, June 6 to November 7, 2009

Evergreen Brick Works Farmers’ Market
550 Bayview Ave (between Prince Edward Viaduct (Bloor/Danforth) & Pottery Road)
Saturdays, 8 am – 1 pm, May 23 to October 31, 2009

Evergreen Brick Works Chefs’ Market: open to chefs, caterers and retailers
550 Bayview Ave (between Prince Edward Viaduct (Bloor/Danforth) & Pottery Road)
Tuesdays 8 am – 1 pm starting June 2, 2009

Guildwood Village Farmers’ Market
The Guild Inn, 191 Guildwood Parkway (at Kingston Road)
Thursdays, 2-6 pm, June 11 to October 22, 2009

Liberty Village Farmers’ Market
(Liberty St – Atlantic Ave)
Sundays, 9 am – 2 pm, June 7 to October 27, 2009

Metro Hall Farmers’ Market
55 John Street, near King St.
Thursdays, 8 am – 2 pm, May 28 to October 15, 2009

Nathan Philips Square Farmers’ Market
Nathan Phillips Square, 100 Queen St. West
Wednesdays, 8 am – 2:30 pm, June 3 to October 14, 2009

North York Civic Centre Farmers’ Market
Mel Lastman Square, 5100 Yonge St.
Thursdays, 8 am – 2 pm, June 4 to October 29, 2009

Riverdale Farm Farmers’ Market
201 Winchester (in Riverdale Park)
Tuesdays, 3 – 7 pm, May 12 to October 27, 2009

St. Lawrence North Farmers’ Market
92 Front Street East (at Jarvis)
Saturdays, 5 am – 5 pm, Open all year

Sherway Farmers’ Market
North Parking Lot, Corner of 427 and The Queensway
Fridays, 8 am – 2 pm, May 1 to October 30, 2009

Sick Kids Hospital Farmers’ Market
555 University Avenue
Tuesdays, 9 am – 2 pm, June 2 to October 27, 2009

Sorauren Farmers’ Market
40 Wabash Ave. at Sorauren
Mondays, 3-7 pm, May 11 to October 26, 2009

Stonegate Farmers’ Market
194 Park Lawn Road (At The Queensway),
St James Humber Bay Anglican Church
Tuesdays, 4 – 7 pm, June 23 to October 6, 2009

The Stop’s Green Barn Farmers’ Market
The Green Arts Barn, 601 Christie Ave. (entrance from Wychwood)
Saturdays 8am – 1pm, year-round

Trinity Bellwoods Farmers’ Market
1053 Dundas St West (Northwest corner of Trinity Bellwoods Park)
Tuesdays, 3 – 7 pm, May 12 to October 27, 2009

University of Toronto Farmers’ Market
University College, 15 King’s College Circle, in the rotunda
Thursdays, 11am – 2pm, Oct 10, 2008-April 9, 2009: resuming in Sept
The Village Organic Farmers’ Market at the Toronto Waldorf School
9100 Bathurst
Saturdays, 8:30 am – 1:30 pm, Open all year

Weston Farmers’ Market
GO Train Parking lot, John St. (Weston Rd. & Lawrence Ave W.)
Saturdays, 7 am – 2 pm, May 16 to October 31, 2009
Withrow Farmers’ Market
725 Logan Ave (in Withrow Park)
Saturdays, 9 am – 1 pm, May 23 to October 31, 2009