Ontario, Canada: Newsroom
News Release
February 13, 2011 9:00 AM
Saving Almost $16 Million By Reducing Paper And Office Equipment
McGuinty Government Eliminating Waste, Finding Savings
Ontario is reducing the amount of paper and office equipment the government uses, saving millions in taxpayer dollars.
Over the next two years, the government will save $15.6 million by:
- Eliminating more than 15,000 printers and computer servers saving $8 million. That’s almost a 50 per cent reduction.
- Cutting paper usage by 50 per cent saving $7 million.
- Reducing the number of office fax machines by centralizing them, saving $640,000.
In addition, the government has reduced the number of daily news packages it prints by 96 per cent over the past six years, saving more than $1.5 million. They will be eliminated entirely by the end of March. This will save Ontario nearly $600,000 each year in paper and printing costs and save almost 5,000 trees compared to 2004 when approximately 41.5 million pages were printed annually.
As part of the Open Ontario Plan, the government is committed to eliminating waste and finding savings that can be used in our schools and for the health care on which Ontario families rely. The government is also reducing the deficit with a plan in place to eliminate it completely by 2018.
QUICK FACTS
- The reduction in equipment will save 30.5 million kilowatt hours a year. That’s enough energy to power 2,767 houses for one year; a savings of approximately $2 million and it will reduce CO2 emissions by 6,750 tonnes annually.
- Reduced printing will also save more than 200 million litres of water annually used to produce office paper, and reduce toner cartridge use and reduce the amount of waste generated every year.
- The Ontario government established an e-waste program that directly supports environmental sustainability by diverting government e-waste (surplus computers, printers, etc) from landfills. More than 1 million kilograms of e-waste has been recycled to date.
CONTACTS
- Geetika Bhardwaj
Minister’s Office, MGS
416-327-0125
- Andrew Chornenky
Minister’s Office, Finance
416-325-9819
- Scott Blodgett
Ministry of Finance
416-325-0324
Ministry of Finance
ontario.ca/finance