insidetoronto.com

It was strong stuff - a pledge to reduce smog-causing pollutants by 20 per cent as of 2012 - and given the mounting evidence of the harm that smog causes locally and on a planetary level, it was a hard pledge to disagree with.

Toronto councillors certainly didn't take many shots at it, at least in concept, when they approved it in the broad strokes in the summer of 2007; the vote to approve was overwhelming. You would think that councillors would move quickly to implement the plan, and the mayor himself would make sure it moved ahead quickly in every aspect.

You might think so; you might even expect it.

But the stronger mayor system was not strong enough Thursday afternoon to keep the plan on track.

A committee was dealing with a proposal to establish a local and sustainable food procurement policy for city facilities and institutions. The policy would require the city to purchase food and produce in a hierarchy: first, buy food that is produced locally and in a sustainable way; if that is not possible, then purchase locally produced food; and if neither of those are available, then purchase imported foodstuffs.

The plan means the city spends a bit more money - about $100,000 was allocated from the city's Environment Office to cover the margin - and there are questions as to exactly how beneficial it will initially be when it comes to eliminating greenhouse gas. But no one argues that purchasing more food that's grown here and not brought in on truck or train or boat from far-off fields will be anything but an environmental positive.

The government management committee, however, was skeptical, and finally, it sent the plan back to staff for more information.

Ward 17 (Davenport) Councillor Cesar Palacio moved the motion, asking staff to come up with a mechanism to certify locally grown foods, and to determine everything from the real cost of the policy, and a precise measure of the impact the policy will have on emissions. The report is to come back in July, for another go around.

Now, studying policy plans as the city does well and often, there are as many questions about this local food procurement policy as there would be about any other. And the fact is that the government management vommittee is not stacked with friends of the mayor and his mandate: Palacio is no friend of the mayor, and Ward 3 (Etobicoke Centre) Councillor Doug Holyday is one of Miller's chief adversaries on the right.

Still, government management is the committee through which many of the institutional elements of Miller's climate change plan must flow. If the air is to be cleaned by 2012, elements of that plan will have to be implemented sooner rather than later.

And that may take support from a small group of councillors who as matters stand have no reason to.