“ A major driver of today’s growing gap between the ’haves’ and the ‘have-nots’ is still the uneven distribution of working time – with some Canadians working too many hours and others not enough. The polarization is, in fact, probably more severe today than it was 10 years ago. Canada’s unemployment rate is still above 7% and the number who involuntarily work long hours is even higher today than in the past. Many who work part time would love a full time job. ”
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Ron Colman is a numbers cruncher. A policy wonk. Heck, he even brought a suit and tie to a meeting in Whitehorse.
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But he knows his numbers so well, he can paint vivid pictures of what we are doing wrong and show audiences how much better off this country could be if we changed our thinking.
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Colman is the founder and executive director of GPI Atlantic, a non-profit research organization that is trying to change how Canadians measure their progress.
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...we understand that our success and our quality of life are increasingly tied to our relationship with our environment. The decisions we make now have profound implications for the future.
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— Prime Minister Paul Martin
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The evidence is clear that increased physical activity would save the province millions of dollars a year in avoided health-care costs. It's estimated that physical inactivity in HRM costs the provincial health-care system $16 million a year in hospital, physician and drug costs alone. When adding all direct health-care costs, including private expenditures, the sedentary lifestyle of nearly half of HRM residents costs the province $23.6 million a year in direct medical expenditures.
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November 2004, The New Zealand Herald ~ Ronald Colman
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New Zealand has gone much further than most other countries in trying to account fully and accurately for its real wealth as a nation. Its excellent social reports, municipal quality of life indicators and sustainable development measures recognise that New Zealand's assets go far beyond the economic resources generally measured to assess prosperity, and include its abundant natural wealth and the health and wellbeing of its people.
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But have New Zealand's new social and environmental measures changed policy in fundamental ways? Have they pushed New Zealanders to consider the trade-offs between today's income and the wellbeing of future generations?
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Oct. 28, 2004, The Chronicle Herald
Study ponders whether revenue from gambling worth social ‘trade-off’
October 19, 2004, The Halifax Herald ~ David Aalders, Ecology Action Centre
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TWO SEEMINGLY unrelated topics have been in the news lately: a) Nova Scotia's unacceptably high rates of physical inactivity, as outlined in a recent study by the Heart and Stroke Foundation; and b) demands by Canadian municipalities for a portion of federal fuel taxes, allowing them to fix decaying urban infrastructure, especially transportation. The Heart and Stroke Foundation study, which stressed the linkages between physical inactivity and the design of our communities, found that 50 per cent of Nova Scotians and 48 per cent of Halifax Regional Municipality residents are inactive.
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Nova Scotia is the little engine that could. Pollute, that is. “
Let me tell the House about health promotion Nova Scotia style. A recent study conducted by Dr. Sally Walker and Dr. Ronald Colman on behalf of the Heart and Stroke Foundation in Nova Scotia indicated that increased physical activity would save the province of Nova Scotia millions of dollars. In my municipality alone the inactive lifestyles of individuals cost the taxpayer more than $23 million. Some 200 residents of the Halifax regional municipality die prematurely each year because of physical inactivity.
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— Michael Savage, Liberal MP, Dartmouth-Cole Harbour
October 6, 2004, The Halifax Herald ~ Dr. Lydia Makrides
Inactivity is a burden on society and our cities should be tailored towards hoofing it or biking it “
Physical inactivity is taking a terrible toll on the health of our city, our province our country - and our economy. This toll is spelled out clearly in a new report prepared by GPI Atlantic for the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Nova Scotia, The Cost of Physical Inactivity in the Halifax Regional Municipality.
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Nearly half of Halifax's population over the age of 12 is inactive, and this costs Nova Scotia $68 million a year in direct and indirect costs. It is also the cause of 200 premature deaths a year.
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September 20, 2004, CBC Radio Alberta ~ Wild Rose Forum
How do you measure progress?
An interview and phone in show with Ronald Colman discussing the Genuine Progress Index in 4 parts (2.5MB - 1.7MB MP3 audio):
Part 1 |
Part 2 |
Part 3 |
Part 4
September 20, 2004, The Halifax Herald
Report: city spaces should inspire activity
September 18, 2004, The Daily News ~ Beth Johnston-Ross
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Urban sprawl could be causing some sprawling Halligonian waistlines.
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Because so many of us spend hours in our cars commuting to and from work, then drive to run errands, we are missing the opportunity to get moving, a Heart and Stroke Foundation report released yesterday says.
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Urban planning can boost residents' fitness levels by providing them with walking or cycling alternatives to driving and accessible sports and recreation facilities, saving public money on health-care costs, the GPI Atlantic report concludes.
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“ Over the past nine years, Nova Scotia has emerged as a world leader in recycling, sending only about half its garbage to landfills or incinerators. ¶ While recycling programs cost more than dumping trash into a big hole, a new study finds that the sparsely populated Canadian province is actually saving money by reducing its waste. When all the costs and benefits of those programs are measured, and depending on what factors are taken into account, the report says that Nova Scotia saves anywhere from $25 million to $125 million every year. ”
“ The biggest financial advantage of the new system over the old is in the energy saved by using recycled materials instead of materials extracted from virgin resources. ¶ The second largest financial benefit comes from extending the life-span of landfills by diverting nearly half of the province’s solid waste to recycling and composting. ”
July 16, 2004, The Chronicle-Herald ~ Leah Sandals
“ GPI Atlantic’s latest report on solid waste, for example, shows how Recycling saves Nova Scotia taxpayers $31 million per year in energy use and landfill replacement. Old accounting methods focused on basic operating costs, neglecting even obvious outlays like the $10 million paid to Sackville residents for landfill-related quality-of-life losses. ¶ In its brief history, GPI Atlantic has generated groundbreaking studies on everything from the costs of obesity and smoking to the viability of farming and forestry – and others are taking notice. Vancouver's and Montreal’s municipal governments help fund GPIA's projects, and eight provinces contracted GPIA to conduct regional obesity studies. Roy Romanow is a big fan, and is helping a national consortium of GPI groups launch a Canadian Index of Well-being this fall. ”
July 16, 2004, The Chronicle-Herald ~ Ronald Colman
“ Far from being a contrivance or "spin," as Mr. Rozee claims, full-cost accounting is actually a far more accurate and comprehensive way of assessing the full range of economic, social and environmental benefits and costs of a project than the narrow accounting mechanisms currently in use. In an era of fiscal restraint, where budgets largely determine policy, it is more important than ever to document actual savings that are invisible in the conventional accounts. ”
July 15, 2004, The Chronicle-Herald Voice of the People ~ Ken Rozee, Hubley
“ Let us be more realistic and stop promoting annoying eco-bafflegab. The new garbage recycling system costs the HRM taxpayer $23.9 million ($72.5 million minus $48.6 million) more than the old; we do not save $31 million. For this additional tax, the public creates probably 150 to 200 new jobs ($6 million to $8 million), and extends the life of our landfill by 46 to 50 per cent ($18.8 million) and usually, but not always, reduces air pollution (cost and benefits unknown). ¶ If this restatement of Sally Walker's report suggests that I am against recycling efforts, that is not the case. Recycling efforts do not need spin-doctors and their weird reorientation of facts to promote its benefits. The recycling message does not need spin! ”
“ The rest of the world is watching how we take out garbage in Nova Scotia. And they seem impressed, based on the number of delegations coming for a first-hand look. The report even found those visits impacted on the province's tourism revenues. That surely gives new meaning to the term eco-tourism, and shows yet another way we're cashing in on taking out the trash. ”
July 11, 2004, The Chronicle-Herald ~ Silver Donald Cameron
“ Last week, GPI Atlantic issued its newest report, on the economic costs and benefits of recycling and composting. In 1989, only three per cent of Nova Scotia’s solid waste was composted or recycled. ¶ Today that figure is 46 per cent. Our province’s management of its garbage is the best in the world. Stand a little straighter, everyone. ¶ Among the economic benefits of this achievement is a constant parade of observers coming to Nova Scotia to see how we do it. In effect, we’ve created a waste-management tourism industry which draws visitors from all over Canada as well as from Europe, Asia, South America and the Caribbean. ”
July 10, 2004, The Chronicle-Herald ~ Marilla Stephenson
“ Let’s not pretend that any of us enjoy the chore of being environmentally conscious with our garbage. And let’s acknowledge that there is the odd end of a soggy English cucumber, cellophane intact, that ends up in the wrong receptable. (Who, me?) ¶ But, for the most part, Nova Scotians are making a world-class effort when it comes to separating garbage. ¶ This was confirmed in a report this week indicating our reduce-recycle-reuse waste strategy is actually cheaper than the old dump-it-in-the-dump approach. ”
July 9, 2004, The Cape Breton Post ~ Chris Shannon
“ Known as the diversion rate — the percentage of garbage that is recycled and put in compost instead of ending up in a landfill — it showed that only 25 per cent of trash is disposed of by using environmentally-friendly methods. ¶ Halifax leads the way with a diversion rate of 59 per cent — the highest waste diversion rate of all Canadian municipalities. That's followed by the Annapolis Valley with 51 per cent. ”
“ Dumping everything in the landfill, as Nova Scotians did until the mid-‘80s, actually costs $24 million a year less than the current system. GPI argues that number is misleading, however, because it excludes a wide range of social and environmental costs and benefits. ¶ For example, the old Sackville dump had leachate problems, rodents, foul odours and gas, which had environmental and health costs. Nearby residents were eventually compensated with $10.4 million. ¶ The GPI report found that, per capita, Nova Scotia disposes of 39 per cent less waste than the Canadian average. HRM has the highest waste-diversion rate of any municipality in Canada and is twice the average. report by Genuine Progress Index Atlantic concludes the province's solid waste management strategy is saving taxpayers at least $31 million a year. ”
“ HALIFAX — Nova Scotia may have something to teach the rest of the country, if not the world, about dealing with garbage, a non-profit research group suggested Wednesday. ”
“ A report by Genuine Progress Index Atlantic concludes the province's solid waste management strategy is saving taxpayers at least $31 million a year. ”
“ At its core, Nova Scotia's waste management strategy, which was introduced in 1989, treats waste as a resource and is designed to reduce its impact on the environment. ”
“ Environment and Labour Minister Kerry Morash expressed pride today, July 7, that an independent research group has endorsed Nova Scotia's solid waste resource management strategy. His comments follow release of a two-year study by Genuine Progress Index (GPI) Atlantic that concluded Nova Scotia's method of handling solid waste is reducing air pollutants, reducing energy consumption and saving taxpayers money. ¶ "I'm not surprised by the report's conclusions. We've known all along that Nova Scotia is a world leader in recycling and composting," said Mr. Morash. "Our initiatives are creating jobs and diverting thousands of tons of waste from our landfills. And experts from around the world are continually visiting our province to learn from our example." ”
June 5, 2004, Saturday Night Magazine ~ Sean Butler
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Not everyone is waiting for the government to move. GPI Atlantic, a non-profit research group based in Halifax, has been developing since 1997 an index of sustainable development and well-being for Nova Scotia. So far, it has completed indicators for 16 of the 22 areas it set out to measure. In another 18 months, says the group's founder, Ron Colman, it hopes to have all 22 indicators finished.
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Yet the index's work-in-progress status hasn't stopped the group from grabbing headlines in Halifax papers over the past few years with reports that put a dollar value on things not usually measured monetarily; costs such as crime, clear-cutting, and smoking, and benefits like volunteer work and childcare.
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June 4, 2004, The Daily News, Truro, Nova Scotia ~ Jason Malloy
“ And one of the areas volunteers do much of their work is in activities which lead to healthier communities. Whether it is with after school programs or with hockey or soccer teams volunteers help make children's lives healthier reducing the costs to health care budgets across the country. ”
June 3, 2004, The Georgia Straight, Vancouver ~ Alicia Priest
In The Shadow of Generation X and The Seniors Tsunami, How Can Today's Youth Plot Their Own Course to Happiness? “
Seventy years ago, Simon Kuznets, the Russia-born U.S. economics professor who was an architect of the GDP, warned against equating national welfare with economic growth. Since then, people have urged governments to use other yardsticks to measure progress. Ronald Colman is one of them. A political scientist and executive director of Genuine Progress Index Atlantic, a Halifax-based nonprofit group, Colman is developing an index of well-being and sustainable development for Nova Scotia that he hopes will become a model for the nation.
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“ At any rate, on the whole there’s enough to warrant some urgent questions being asked. GPI makes some suggestions which it says will reverse these trends by making the work less stressful and the workplace more flexible and more productive, and create jobs besides. ¶ Its main thrust is that overtime be discouraged in favour of new hiring. If even half the overtime were transformed into new jobs, over 8,000 of them would be created in Nova Scotia. Holland has reduced its unemployment rate from 12 per cent to around three per cent, partly by this means. ”
April 30, 2004, The Truro Daily News ~ John Christianson
“ "The report clearly points to some troubling work and income trends in Canada and Nova Scotia," said Pannozzo. "We've got people who are over-worked from all walks of life — rich, poor, and the struggling middle class. And at at the same time we have a huge gap between rich and poor, and a growing class of underemployed." ”
“ PAYING EVERYONE for the overtime hours they work is a laudable idea, but the simple fact is, it isn't very practical. ¶ Non-profit research organization GPI Atlantic says so much unpaid overtime is being worked that it is actually taking work away from the unemployed. ¶ That is quite a conclusion to reach, considering that eliminating overtime would also cut into productivity. The result would turn profitable Nova Scotia firms into historical footnotes. ”
“ Nearly two-thirds of Nova Scotians who work overtime aren’t getting paid for it, according to a report released yesterday by Halifax think-tank GPI Atlantic. ¶ In a typical week in 2001, salaried employees worked about 373,000 overtime hours for no extra pay, says the report. ¶ “It's a staggering number, and these people are doing it for free,” said Linda Pannozzo, the report’s main author. ”
April 27, 2004, Halifax Herald
Working harder to get by: study finds Nova Scotians working more free overtime
April 27, 2004, The Cape Breton Post ~ Chris Lambie
“ If all overtime hours were converted to new full-time jobs, admittedly not an easy task, there would be half a million fewer unemployed Canadians and 16,000 fewer unemployed Nova Scotians ”
“ Only 38% of Nova Scotians who work overtime get paid for it, says the report. About 59% of workers who work overtime — many of them teachers and managers -- aren't compensated for the extra effort. ”
“ Part-time employment in Nova Scotia increased to 17.8 of all employees in 2001 from 12.5 per cent in 1976, says the report, which recommends doing away with “systemic disincentives to new hiring” such as payroll taxes. ”
Nova Scotia is the little engine that could. Pollute, that is. “ According to a new study by the non-profit research group GPI Atlantic, Nova Scotia accounts for one-quarter of the sulphur oxide this country belches out to generate electricity. On a per capita basis, that's eight times the national average. We lead all other provinces in this field, despite the fact our economy is dwarfed by Ontario’s. ”
Jan. 29, 2004, The Halifax Herald Editorial
Coal case file in N.S.
Jan. 23, 2004, The Halifax Herald Editorial
Air quality better than it used to be
Jan. 22, 2004
The New Brunswick Telegraph Journal and The Saint John Telegraph-Journal
“ "We are the victim of huge amount of transboundary pollution from the United States and central Canada, but the part that's not usually talked about is what we're responsible for ourselves," Ron Colman, one of the report's authors, said Wednesday. ¶ "The fact that Nova Scotia is responsible for 25 per cent of all Canada's sulphur oxide emissions is quite dramatic." ¶ The report estimated that sulphur oxide emissions in 2002 caused $212-million worth in damages in Nova Scotia. That includes costs associated with health care and resource depletion. ”
January 22, 2004, The Moncton Times and Transcript
Study finds N.S. responsible for 25 per cent of Canada's sulphur oxide emissions “ Nova Scotia Power, which produces the bulk of energy in the province, has said it is moving away from its reliance on coal-fired plants and is looking more to natural gas, lower sulphur coal and wind turbines for power sources. ¶ Under a provincial plan, sulphur dioxide emissions must be reduced 25 per cent by 2005 and 50 per cent by 2010; nitrogen oxide 20 per cent by 2009; and mercury 20 to 50 per cent by 2005. ”
“ We are the victim of huge amount of transboundary pollution from the United States and central Canada, but the part that's not usually talked about is what we're responsible for ourselves ”
N.S. spews 25% of country's sulphur oxide emissions, report finds “ Environmentalists are hoping the new information will encourage power producers, consumers and governments to come up with alternative fuel sources, reduce usage and diversify energy production. ¶ Nova Scotia Power, which produces the bulk of energy in the province, has said it is moving away from its reliance on coal-fired plants and is looking more to natural gas, lower-sulphur coal and wind turbines for power sources ”
January 22, 2004, The Daily News, Halifax ~ Alison Auld, Canadian Press
“ Canadians routinely blame U.S. power plants as the major source of pollutants that drift north, but Colman says high energy production in Eastern Canada creates substantial pollution. ¶ The report estimated that sulphur oxide emissions in 2002 caused $212-million worth in damages to Nova Scotia. That includes costs associated with health care and resource depletion. ”
January 21, 2004, Globe and Mail On-line Edition ~ Darren Yourk
“ The report also found that in the summer of 2001, Nova Scotians seeking refuge from ground-level ozone pollution were better off in downtown Halifax than in Kejimkujik National Park, where ozone levels have been as high as 2.33 times the maximum acceptable concentration. ¶ Continuing high ground-level ozone concentrations have been linked to such health problems as bronchitis, asthma, pneumonia and emphysema. ¶ That same year, downtown Halifax recorded the highest annual average sulphur dioxide concentration of any commercial centre in the country - between two and 12 times the levels measured in Canada's other major cities. ”
January 21, 2004, January 21, 2004, Global Television On-line Edition
“ Anne Monette, a scientist who researched the report, said the major concern for the region is the ground-level ozone. The high levels of the pollutant have shown no sign of improvement in 15 years and is still above the acceptable Canadian level. ”
January 21, 2004, January 21, 2004, January 21, 2004, CBC.ca
“ Recent smog levels show that's still happening, says GPI Atlantic senior researcher Anne Monette. ¶ "Two of the highest levels of ozone in Canada occurred in Nova Scotia in 2001. The sites are relatively remote and there's no significant local sources." ¶ But Monette says the study also shows that Nova Scotians are major air polluters. ”
2004 ~ Nordregio in Sweden
Tools for Sustainable Regional Development
206 page report sites the work of GPIAtlantic1.9MB PDF
GPIAtlantic
535 Indian Point Road
Glen Haven, NS
Canada B3Z 2T5
Phone: (902) 489-2524
Fax: (902) 826-7088 info@gpiatlantic.org
