Toronto Star and Tides Canada partner to probe environmental issues

The Toronto Star has partnered with the Tides Canada Foundation to create a four-month reporter position dedicated to examining the link between economics and the environment.

Leading up to the United Nations Conference on Climate Change in Paris, which begins in November, the position will allow for reporting about climate change and the economic opportunities and challenges that Canadian industries, businesses and institutions face today and down the road — and how this will affect the pockets of consumers.

The Tides Canada Foundation is a national charity dedicated to connecting and empowering people and initiatives that tackle social and environmental challenges, and although they will be funding the posi- tion, the Star will be maintaining full editorial control.

“Tides Canada is supporting this partnership to increase public awareness and dialogue around the impacts of climate change on Canada’s economy and communities,” said Ross McMillan, president and chief executive officer of Tides Canada.

As a country dependent on and defined by its natural resources, Canada is already feeling the impacts of climate change, from accelerated melting in the far north to the shifting of growing seasons to the emergence of new diseases and invasive species, and how Canada responds to this global threat and navigates the worldwide transition to a low-carbon economy will affect the well-being and prosperity of Canadians for generations to come.

This is the second time the Star has created a newsroom position funded by a charitable foundation. In October 2014, the paper established a one-year work and wealth beat in partnership with the Atkinson Foundation, which was founded by Star publisher Joseph Atkinson in 1942.

Sara Mojtehedzadeh, a former BBC World Service journalist, was hired for the role and then permanently by the Star after the conclusion of the project.

The new climate and economy beat will be held by Tyler Hamilton, who is returning to the Star after serving as editor-in-chief of the sustainability themed business magazine Corporate Knights. Between 2000 and 2010, Hamilton was a technology and energy reporter with the Star’s business section.