Published June 3, 2011
by iris_author
The following appeared in the Thursday, June 2, 2011 edition of Y-File. Peter Victor is an IRIS Senior Fellow.
The provincial government announced Tuesday that Professor Peter A. Victor of York’s Faculty of Environmental Studies (FES) has been appointed chair of the Greenbelt Council of Ontario. The greenbelt permanently protects 1.8 million acres of agricultural and environmentally sensitive land around the Greater Golden Horseshoe – an area larger than Prince Edward Island.
An economist who has worked on environmental issues for 40 years as an academic, public servant and consultant, Victor teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in ecological and environmental economics and management at York.
Right: Peter Victor
“Dr. Victor brings a wealth of knowledge, experience and insight to the Greenbelt Council,” said Rick Bartolucci, minister of municipal affairs & housing. “I look forward to working with Dr. Victor and council as they provide advice on the ongoing implementation of the greenbelt.”
Victor said he is looking forward to working with the council, which advises the Ministry of Municipal Affairs & Housing, on the greenbelt and related issues. “We have come to understand economies as subsystems of the biosphere and realize that a healthy environment and a strong economy go hand in hand,” said Victor.
From 1996 to 2001, Victor was dean of FES, and before that an assistant deputy minister at the Ontario Ministry of the Environment. He continues to provide advice to public, private and non-governmental organizations on areas such as air pollution and health, emissions trading, emerging issues, and full cost accounting at national and corporate levels.
From 2000 to 2004, he was president of the Royal Canadian Institute for the Advancement of Science, Canada’s oldest science organization, and from 2004 to 2006, he was chair of Environment Canada’s Science & Technology Advisory Board. Currently, he is a member of the Advisory Committee on the National Accounts for Statistics Canada, the Academic Advisory Panel of TruCost, the Ontario Government’s Advisory Committee on Transboundary Science and the board of the David Suzuki Foundation. In addition, he is author of Managing without Growth: Slower by Design, not Disaster (Edward Elgar, 2008).
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