15-1 接待.doc

15-1 第三版 7-1 绿色城市 A Green City I’m very happy to have the opportunity to talk to you about Toronto, particularly to talk about how the City of Toronto endeavors to turn itself with success into a green city in the process of economic integration with its surrounding cities. The City of Toronto is a mature municipality and has limited greenfield development potential. Unlike the cities surrounding us, the City of Toronto has also the added cost burden of having to begin replacing its infrastructure which in some cases is over 100 years old. Most of the development in the municipalities around Toronto has occurred over the past 30 years and therefore their infrastructure is relatively new and was paid for by the development charges. The Greater Toronto Area has one of the most diversified economies of any region in North America. The largest economic sectors in the region include aerospace, biomedical industry, apparel industry, food procession industry, financial services, business and professional services, information technology, telecommunication and media. Due to the urbanization of the Greater Toronto Area, over the last 30 years, most of the largest economic sectors spanned across municipal boundaries. Most of the high value added business operations, for example, financial services, biomedical industry, computer software development, digital media, and research and development, are located within the City of Toronto. Traditional heavy manufacturing operations tend to locate in the surrounding municipalities, where the realty taxes are lower and there is a plenty of available land for greenfield development. One of the four visions in the “City’s Strategic Plan” is that Toronto is clean, green and environmentally sustainable. The City of Toronto has adopted an environmental paln to achieve its long-term goal of environmental sustainability. The plan includes 66 specific recommendations which guide city policies. It was developed within input from a wide range o