Item - 2020.TA5.5

The Board of Directors of the Toronto Atmospheric Fund:

1.  Authorized staff to approve and execute the non-binding Indicative Term Sheet for the FCM-LC3 funding agreements, substantially in the form presented by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities on February 3, 2020 and as summarized in Confidential Attachment 2 to the report (February 3, 2020) from the Chief Executive Officer, and subject to:

a.  satisfactory resolution of the outstanding negotiating points identified by Toronto Atmospheric Fund staff in Confidential Attachment 2 to the report (February 3, 2020) from the Chief Executive Officer;

b.  approval by Toronto Atmospheric Fund’s solicitor, Toronto Atmospheric Fund’s Chief Executive Officer, and the Ad Hoc LC3 Working Group established by the Board, consisting of Parminder Sandhu, Kim Marshall, Jennifer McKelvie, Karim Bardeesy, Andrew Dooner; and

c.  the condition that the final tri-partite Funding Agreement between Toronto Atmospheric Fund, the City of Toronto and the Federation of Canadian Municipalities will be presented to the Board of Directors for approval separately at a later date.

2.  Directed that the confidential information contained in Confidential Attachments 1 and 2 to the report (February 3, 2020) from the Chief Executive Officer remain confidential in their entirety as they pertain to negotiations carried on or to be carried on by or on behalf of the Toronto Atmospheric Fund.

The Board of Directors of the Toronto Atmospheric Fund recessed its public meeting to meet in closed session to consider the item as it pertains to negotiations carried on or to be carried on by or on behalf of the Toronto Atmospheric Fund.

The Government of Canada, via the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM), provided $350 million for an urban climate action program which includes $183 million for the Low Carbon Cities Canada (LC3) initiative incubated by Toronto Atmospheric Fund (TAF). This will provide endowments to TAF and six other centres modelled on TAF; the balance is for an endowment to be managed by the FCM’s Green Municipal Fund (GMF).

The seven LC3 centres, including TAF, have negotiated a non-binding Indicative Term Sheet which will guide the development of individual Funding Agreements with FCM. It applies only to the federal endowment funds.  Much of this has been modelled on TAF’s existing policies and practices. 

It is expected that TAF’s Funding Agreement, which will be a tri-partite agreement between TAF, the City of Toronto (COT) and FCM, will be completed within a month. It will be tailored to include terms relevant to the protection of the Toronto and Ontario endowments and TAF’s governance and accountabilities.  Approval of the Funding Agreement by both TAF’s Board and City Council will be required. 

It is recommended that TAF’s Board approve the non-binding Indicative Term Sheet.