'Precious little' in Manitoba budget to slash greenhouse gas emissions, activists say

If urgency is needed to stave off a climate catastrophe, Manitoba's government isn't showing it with its 2022 budget, activists are saying.

The province lists "protecting our environment" in last week's budget documents as one of its five main priorities, but the new measures, such as $50 million to clean up abandoned mines and $6 million for existing initiatives, will have a negligible impact on what Curt Hull says is really needed: weaning ourselves off of greenhouse gases.

"There's precious little in [the budget] with respect to climate change and showing an effective approach to helping us move away from our dependence on fossil fuels," said Hull, project director at Climate Change Connection in Winnipeg.

The budget registers numerous programs that can reduce greenhouse gases, such as making the trucking industry more efficient, but Hull said those developments are not enough.

Manitoba must push to electrify transportation and the heating of buildings, he said.

Without it, the province will not heed the recent findings from the International Panel on Climate Change, which said the world is running out of time to avert the dire impacts of climate change. 

Alternatives to fossil fuels

"Instead of making the use of fossil fuels more efficient, we need to be finding ways to eliminate our use of fossil fuels entirely," Hull said.

"That doesn't mean making fossil fuel usage more efficient. It means to find alternatives to fossil fuel usage, including electrification of both heating and transportation."

Hull said he isn't surprised the provincial budget is lacking in those regards, as, he argues, the Progressive Conservative government hasn't prioritized a separate from greenhouse gas emissions.

The 2022 budget details various environmental matters, but not all of them are intended to reduce emissions. 

The spending plan vows $50 million to clean up abandoned mines over a two-year period and an extra $6 million to support initiatives arising from the province's green plan, which was released in 2017.

It will give out an extra $500,000 in 2022 to expand the Conservation and Climate Fund, which supports the green-friendly initiatives of non-profits, municipalities and businesses, and an additional $1.2 million toward forestry programs. 

The budget also says Manitoba is in the process of developing an energy policy framework, which it says will "explore innovative technologies to reduce emissions and simulate the economy."

A consultant which is helping prepare the new strategy told the province it would need to turn passenger vehicles electric and significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions if it wants to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.

The environment minister, however, said the consultation document, which was leaked to the NDP and made public, is feedback the province is considering, but not necessarily the path Manitoba would follow, he said in an email.

Manitoba hasn't said if it's working toward net zero, but the federal government says Canada is planning to hit the target by 2050.

Net zero is reached when all the greenhouse gas emissions produced are offset by emissions removed from the atmosphere.

Emissions slipped in pandemic's start

The Manitoba government set a target to cut emissions by a cumulative one megatonne between 2018 and 2022.

In recently released data from the federal government, Canada recorded a drop in emissions in 2020, though the pandemic is considered a large contributor. In Manitoba, emissions slipped from 22.3 megatonnes in 2019 to 21.7 megatonnes the following year.

Ottawa's plan is to reduce emissions by 40 to 45 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030. As of 2020, emissions in Manitoba are 5.6 per cent higher than 2005 levels.

The province was unavailable to comment on Monday, but Environment Minister Jeff Wharton said in an unrelated news conference Tuesday that the province is committed to reducing emissions in collaboration with the federal government. 

"We know that they've set out mandates and goals, and we're going to work with them to ensure we meet those goals.

The budget document describes Manitoba as a leader in producing clean, renewable hydroelectricity and says the province continues to find "innovative ways to bend the emission curve downward."

Durdana Islam, program manager for Manitoba's Climate Action Team, said the provincial budget should have specific commitments for electrifying vehicles or motivating people to take the bus.

She also wants progress on retrofitting homes, but the provincial building code hasn't been updated to match the latest national code from 2015, which included upgrades for certain insulation values and other energy efficiency measures.

That leaves it up to individual homeowners to spend their own money to make some of these improvements, Islam said.

"We cannot afford that," she said. "It has to be coming from the government and also from the Crown corporations."

She added all levels of government must collaborate to help slash emissions.