ONTARIO SIGNALS COMMITMENT TO CLEAN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
(Toronto, September 18, 2014) – The inaugural Ontario green bond issue announced today is a clear signal of the growing desire for financial accountability and commitment to cleaner economic and community development. The initial green bond for up to $500 million will be issued in the coming weeks, and is part of larger multibillion-dollar Ontario green bonds program, announced by Minister of Finance Charles Sousa this past fall.
“As the first province to release a certified green bond, Ontario is to be commended as a provincial pioneer opening the door in Canada toward a more accountable form of finance that serves growing investor appetite to finance green and productive infrastructure,” said Toby Heaps, Executive Director of the Council for Clean Capitalism, a group of Canadian CEOs committed to policies that support sustainable growth.
In designing this inaugural bond issue to finance transit expansion, the Ontario government has also provided investors and members of the public with the needed certainty that revenues raised will, in fact, be directed to green infrastructure development.
As companies unified in support of clean capitalism principles, the Council for Clean Capitalism identified three high-impact policy areas – green financing programs, green building energy standards and reporting and inclusive wealth accounting – that industry sector leaders would do well to champion.
Details about the Council are available at www.cleancapitalism.com. The participating companies seek public policies in support of an economic system in which prices fully incorporate social, economic and ecological benefits and costs, and people know the impact of their marketplace actions. Corporate Knights acts as its policy secretariat.
Founded in 2002, Corporate Knights Inc. is a Toronto-based media, research and financial products company focused on clean capitalism.
For information contact:
Toby Heaps, President & CEO Lyn Brown, Managing Director
toby@corporateknights.com lyn@corporateknights.com
416-203-4674 604-341-0233