Environmental Policy

This commentary by Eric Hebert-Daly, CPAWS’ National Executive Director, appeared in The Hill Times on April 26, 2010.

It’s 2010, the International Year of Biodiversity. The seven-year old federal Species At Risk Act is under review by the House of Commons Standing Committee on the Environment. It’s timely to ask some tough questions.

Is it realistic to expect that the federal government will be able to save Canada’s 500 plus species that have been identified as at risk of extinction? Does Canada really have what it takes to become a world leader in nature conservation?

Less than 10% of our land base and 1% of our waters are protected. Industrialization is advancing ever further north and ecosystems that we once never worried about are now a bulldozer away from being altered forever. Climate change is adding new stresses on wildlife and their habitat. The time is now for new visionary thinking and action to protect the globally important wilderness that lies within our borders.

Given our country’s constitutional structure, with environmental responsibilities shared by federal, provincial and territorial governments, what will it take for Canada to emerge as a groundbreaking trendsetter in protecting our irreplaceable wilderness?

The case of Canada’s nationally at-risk Boreal woodland caribou is an excellent test of our ability to rise to the challenge of preserving our country’s natural ecosystems. These majestic animals that are symbols of Canada’s wilderness once ranged throughout most of the country. But human activities have reduced their habitat by about half since the first Europeans landed. Today the woodland caribou is confined almost entirely to Canada’s northern Boreal forests.

Although their range is still vast, Boreal woodland caribou are listed as threatened or worse under the federal Species At Risk Act throughout the country, with the exception of the island of Newfoundland. An umbrella species signaling the health of our Boreal forests and wetlands, Boreal woodland caribou require large intact wilderness areas to survive. If their habitat is fragmented by roads, farming, logging, mining and energy development, it opens up more access to predators such as wolves, and caribou generally disappear within about 20 years.

A quick look at the last 10 years of attempts to address the plight of Boreal woodland caribou shows only too starkly that the federal government can’t go it alone on species protection. In 2000, the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) assessed the entire population of Boreal woodland caribou as “threatened”. “Recovery planning” began the following year under a program with the ironic acronym of RENEW, which stood for the “Recovery of Nationally Endangered Wildlife, and continued under the Species At Risk Act after it was passed in 2003.

Many more years of study followed, as did pressure on the federal government from conservation groups including CPAWS to prepare a recovery plan based on the critical habitat needs of the species. Finally, in 2009 Environment Canada released a groundbreaking report prepared under the Species At Risk Act. The report wasn’t a recovery strategy, but it did contain an unprecedented scientific assessment of the extent of the range of habitat Boreal woodland caribou required tosurvive.

Still however, we await the release of a recovery strategy, which is now expected in 2011, following consultations with aboriginal people who have long lived in harmony with Boreal woodland caribou, and even further scientific study. Meanwhile caribou populations continue to decline.

Our learning from this process is this – the Species At Risk Act is an essential tool that enables the federal government to get involved in protecting species. But on its own, it’s insufficient. Conserving wilderness on the grand scale required by wide-ranging species such as the caribou demands concerted action by many parties who are intimately affected.

Those parties include governments at the federal, provincial, territorial and First Nations levels. They include industries like forestry, mining, and energy developers. They also include conservation groups. All of these parties need to bring their knowledge, skills and a shared commitment to sustaining our country’s natural wealth to the table.

The federal government can play a leadership role in this process. We’ve been encouraged in recent years by this government’s interest in protecting Canada’s natural heritage. Theprotection of over 100,000 km 2 of land in the Northwest Territories, including the massive expansion last year of Nahanni National Park Reserve, and other progress in establishing new national parks is a strong indication of commitment.

We’re also strongly encouraged by commitments of several provinces in the past few years to protecting large portions of their Boreal forests. In 2008, Premier McGuinty in Ontario and Premier Charest in Quebec both committed their provinces to protecting at least half of their northern Boreal landscapes. Last summer, the Alberta government opened the first door in more than a decade to new protected areas through newly announced land use planning processes.

The time is now to dedicate our collective abilities to a national effort to protect our natural heritage. That is the only way we’ll succeed in placing Canada at the forefront of nature-nurturing nations.

Young people will have the opportunity to get to know their wild neighbours in Beaudry Provincial Park through the provincially supported Robert Bateman Get to Know program, Conservation Minister Bill Blaikie said today on Earth Day.

"The program will help introduce young people to the wonders of Manitoba's natural areas through computer and Internet-based resources, and hopefully encourage them to experience parks in person," said Blaikie.  "Greater awareness of our environment will help foster a stronger sense of pride and personal responsibility to the natural world."

The Get to Know virtual hike is designed to provide youth with an opportunity to explore local green spaces such as Beaudry Provincial Park and learn about local wildlife before visiting in person.  The ultimate goal of the project is to raise environmental literacy and awareness in Manitoba schools.

For more than 10 years, the Robert Bateman Get to Know program has connected hundreds of thousands of young people with direct, hands-on learning opportunities through educational initiatives based on current research developed in conjunction with leading educators.  The site can be viewed at http://hikes.gettoknow.ca/beaudry.

The province provided a $25,000 Sustainable Development Innovations Fund (SDIF) grant to assist with the project.  SDIF supports a diverse range of projects from research studies and demonstrations of new technology to community enhancement and environmental awareness.  Other targeted funding programs under the SDIF are:
- the Waste Reduction and Pollution Prevention Fund;
- the Environmental Youth Corps;
- the Manitoba Climate Change Action Fund; and
- the Water Stewardship Fund.

More information on these programs is available at www.susdev.gov.mb.ca.

This year also marks the 50th anniversary of the first Provincial Parks Act passed by the Manitoba legislature.  Visitors have access to outdoor experiences in a variety of provincial parks that will feature free entry once again this year.
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Once again the embarrassing numbers are out showing how awful Manitoba’s record is in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Embarrassing may not describe things aptly enough; abysmal and horrendous is much better.

As if a risky taxpayer-funded deal for a new football stadium and running five more years of deficit budgets isn’t bad enough, this government is a complete failure on the environment.

Environment Canada has just released its annual National Inventory Report, a 582-page document detailing and accounting for the country’s GHG emissions. It shows in 2008 — the most recent data available — Manitoba’s emissions climbed to an all-time high of 21.9 megatonnes (Mt). That’s up almost a percentage point over the previous year and roughly 25% above the Kyoto target of 6% below 1990 levels, which the province has pledged in law to reach by 2012.

We need to drop our annual emissions by 4.4 Mt to reach the goal. That’s equivalent to taking 841,300 vehicles off the road in a province where, according to MPI, there are only 749,522 vehicles.

We’ve come to expect this news every spring.

Every year we’re told to expect better numbers next year. It’s time the province outright said they’ve failed miserably reducing emissions. They need to find a whole new strategy. In previous years, former environment minister Jim Rondeau tried to cleverly and colourfully spin the bad numbers.

“We found all the things that would be causing the issues and started to address the increases. I see (emissions) trending downwards now,” he told the Sun in June 2008. And last year he said “there’s been a delay in implementing the programs and seeing the results.” Well that’s getting closer to the truth. This year, it sounds like someone down on Broadway actually cares.

“We’re going to have to find ways to get big reductions. That’s going to be difficult and expensive and in the current environment that’s going to a challenge too,” current minister Bill Blaikie said.

Obviously the government needs a swift kick in the behind. But so do Manitobans.

Curt Hull, project co-ordinator with Climate Change Connection, a provincial environmental group is right when blames all of us as well. He says Manitobans are not making the smart choices they must, like taking public or alternate transportation instead of driving gas-guzzling SUVs.

The NDP have been out to lunch on creating an effective plan to deal with this, no doubt about it.

But it’s like the crime rate.

Everyone needs to contribute

Don’t jump in your car so much, walk instead. Stop being so lazy. Or take a bus.

Start now or you’re being as inept as the NDP.

— Paul Rutherford

FOR a budget awash in red, there was little in the way of green for environmentalists and that had them feeling blue.

The Conservation Department saw its budget cut by 5.4 per cent -- placing it squarely in the category of the spending-priority have-nots.

"The environment is not a luxury; it's something that we need to take care of in good times and in bad," said Ron Thiessen, Manitoba director of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society.

In her budget speech, Finance Minister Rosann Wowchuk listed several government environmental initiatives, but few of them were new.

The government will eliminate the sales tax on shredded tires used in municipal road construction to encourage the use of recycled products. It will also invest an untold amount to reduce the amount of methane released from landfills in Winnipeg and Brandon. And it will "green" its building codes to improve water and energy efficiency in new homes and buildings.

Eric Reder, Manitoba director with the Western Canada Wilderness Committee, said Manitoba's parks are already underfunded compared with other western provinces. And Tuesday's budget is not going to improve matters.

"For us to lower the amount that we're funding Conservation -- we're definitely going in the wrong direction there," he said. "We're going to see things suffer."

Reder was hoping for a signal in the budget that the province planned to make good on a promise some time ago to protect five wilderness areas by 2010. It's already designated two. But there was no mention of it by the government Tuesday.

Conservation Minister Bill Blaikie said he "didn't enjoy" seeing his department's budget cut, but it was something the government had to do in tough economic times.

"We made some decisions to spend more on health care and in order to do that in the current environment it meant that other departments, including Conservation, had to find savings," Blaikie said.

Altogether, nine departments, saw their funding cut back.

Blaikie said budget cuts won't affect the province's ability to create new wilderness areas.

larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition March 24, 2010 A7

WINNIPEG — The Selinger government gets a C for environment stewardship and that’s a good grade, according to Manitoba Wildlands.

The 2009 grade reflects steps taken late in 2009 to establish some new protected areas, two of which are of moderate size, the environment lobby group says.

Those areas work out to 407,500 hectares. The largest area is Kaskatamagan Wildlife Management Area on Hudson Bay. The smallest newly protected area is the Whitemouth Bog Wildlife Management Area east of Winnipeg.

The technical assessment for this year, which includes bonus and penalty actions, shows improvement, but there is a lot of catching up to do," commented Gaile Whelan Enns, director of Manitoba Wildlands.

The U.S. District Court has again ruled in favour of Manitoba in its case against the Northwest Area Water Supply (NAWS) project, Water Stewardship Minister Christine Melnick announced today.
 
Judge Rosemary Collyer, in her decision issued Friday, March 5, ordered the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to take a "hard look" at the consequences of biota transfer into the Hudson Bay drainage basin and refused to lift her injunction on completion of the project.
 
"The Government of Manitoba is pleased with this ruling," said Melnick.  "We look forward to working with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and with North Dakota as they now undertake the necessary work ordered by Judge Collyer."
 
On Oct. 22, 2002, Manitoba filed a legal challenge in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., arguing the NAWS project, one of the Garrison Diversion projects that would divert Missouri River water across the continental divide to the Hudson Bay basin, could cause severe and irreparable harm to Manitoba and had been improperly assessed.
 
In early 2005, Collyer ruled in Manitoba's favour and ordered the U.S. federal government and North Dakota to go back and do a proper assessment of the risks of transfer of harmful biota or invasive species. Since 2005, additional work was undertaken and in 2009, the U.S. federal government and North Dakota returned to the court and asked the injunction on further work be lifted so that the project could proceed. Manitoba and Missouri objected, saying the proper assessment still had not been done as Collyer originally ordered, and the project still placed Manitoba at considerable risk of harm and this harm had not been properly considered.
 
"While the future of the project is still uncertain, today's ruling will assist in achieving adequate measures to protect Manitoba's valuable water including Lake Winnipeg, the world's 10th largest freshwater lake, from the threat of harm posed by invasive species that could be transferred by the NAWS project,"
said Melnick.
 
Manitoba was joined in its lawsuit by the Canadian federal government, Minnesota, Missouri, the U.S. National Wildlife Federation, the Great Lake Environmental Law Centre, the Minnesota Conservation Federation and the South Dakota Wildlife Federation.
 
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ONE of the planet's leading freshwater scientists says his life's work has been ignored or misrepresented before Manitoba's Clean Environment Commission. David Schindler, a University of Alberta limnologist who founded the Experimental Lakes Area in northwestern Ontario, told an audience of city and provincial officials on Tuesday that there is no scientific basis for an environmental order that requires Winnipeg remove nitrogen from its treated sewage as well as phosphorus.

Speaking at city hall at the behest of Winnipeg Mayor Sam Katz, Schindler said he believes key ELA findings about the effects of nitrogen removal were misrepresented to the Clean Environment Commission, the provincial agency that ordered Winnipeg to upgrade its sewage treatment in 2003 and has been monitoring the multibillion-dollar effort ever since.

The city and province are embroiled in a dispute over the provincial order to remove nitrogen, a step the city claims will cost $350 million up front as well as an additional $9 million a year.

Schindler and dozens of other current freshwater scientists say that move will do more harm than good to Lake Winnipeg, which is suffering from the effects of eutrophication, a process by which excessive amounts of phosphorus and nitrogen from a variety of human sources spawn the growth of algae, which in turn deprive the lake of oxygen as they decompose.

Since the majority of the algae growth in Lake Winnipeg involves blue-green algae, which are capable of getting nitrogen from the air, it is pointless to limit the amount of nitrogen flowing into the Lake Winnipeg watershed right now, Schindler said.

Limiting phosphorus alone will have a greater effect on algae blooms, he insisted, adding claims to the contrary by other researchers are akin to climate-change denials.

"They have a couple of other people out there who keep dithering on about all this other information about there," he said, declining to name the scientists in question.

Clean Environment Commission chairman Terry Sargeant, who took in the speech, said he does not dispute Schindler's science or the wisdom of limiting phosphorus to prevent blue-green algae blooms.

Sargeant said the commission was concerned about more than blue-green algae when it ordered the city to remove nitrogen as well as phosphorus. But he said the commission is considering a city request to convert ammonia, a nitrogen-based compound toxic to fish, into nitrate chemicals, without removing the nitrogen.

Schindler also said he thought the CEC lacked the expertise to review freshwater science, but a spokeswoman for the Selinger government expressed confidence in the commission.

The Tory opposition, meanwhile, issued a statement lambasting the NDP government for ignoring the financial and environmental concerns about the expense of nitrogen.

bartley.kives@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition February 24, 2010 B2

I saw Gary Doer recently in Copenhagen, waiting his turn to speak with a high-ranking official of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency at a social event we were co-hosting during the UN climate summit.

As the new Canadian ambassador to the U.S., this is exactly the kind of thing Doer should be doing: networking and forming relationships with American officials. But, as Doer embraces the Harper government's instructions to defend the tarsands industry, he is undermining his green legacy as premier of Manitoba and, worse, undermining the interests of his home province in years to come.

A few years ago, Business Week magazine named then-premier Doer as one of the top 20 leaders in the world taking action on global warming. He took the province into the Western Climate Initiative, a partnership with California and several other states and provinces to develop a regional system to control large polluters, doing so, in his words, "in the absence of clear federal leadership." At the time, he stated Manitoba shared a vision with California.

Today, however, Ambassador Doer is enthusiastically selling Americans on the do-nothing approach of the federal Conservatives on climate change, and is the face of the tarsands industry's fight against U.S. states, led by California, that want to reduce the carbon content of transportation fuels. His sales job is wrapped up in the rhetoric of "harmonizing" with the U.S., but in reality everyone knows Ottawa is still doing nothing to rein in large polluters, with the result our emissions keep going up instead of down.

Manitoba faces a triple whammy from the climate games the Harper government is playing, and that Ambassador Doer is supporting in his U.S. lobbying. The most obvious one is endangering young Manitobans through the deterioration of our atmosphere, but two other negative impacts will unfold on the course we are currently on.

First, at some point, Canada will be forced to place an absolute cap on global warming emissions -- one that shrinks over time. Under such a cap, if any one industry does not make its fair share of pollution cuts, then others under the cap must do more to compensate. During the Copenhagen climate summit, the CBC obtained secret cabinet documents showing the Conservatives are considering a plan to let the tarsands industry more than triple its global warming emissions, which would force industries elsewhere -- including Manitoba -- to shoulder the tarsands burden over and above the cuts they need to make anyway.

Second, a growing tarsands industry is turning Canada's currency into a petrodollar that rises and falls along with the price of oil. With oil giants themselves admitting we are heading into world-wide global oil scarcity, the price of oil is expected to go through the roof, taking our dollar with it.

This will have the impact of making Canadian-made goods more expensive in international markets, hurting exporting industries in Manitoba and elsewhere.

When you accept the job as Canadian ambassador, you accept being told what to do and say by Ottawa, regardless of your personal beliefs. Gary Doer knew this going into the role, which is in large part why the choice of an NDP premier by a Conservative government raised eyebrows across the country. But, there could be no illusions where the Harper government stood on global warming at the time of the job offer, nor any doubt Doer would be heavily involved in the issue in the U.S. after the election of Barack Obama as president.

It is sad to lose Gary Doer to the tarsands and to the Harper government's hostility to the emergence of the clean energy economy. vDefending the interests of Manitoba, however, is the job of the government of Manitoba and the pathway to do this is clear.

Continued inaction from Ottawa means regional partnerships like the Western Climate Initiative are as important as ever. Manitoba should also band together with other progressive provinces to push back on federal efforts to grow tarsands pollution at the expense of others and to engage in a national debate about energy, currency rates and prosperity in the emerging low carbon economy.

Matt Price is policy director for Environmental Defence, a charity dedicated to protecting the environment and human health. www.environmentaldefence.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition February 11, 2010 A11

TORONTO, Feb. 8 /CNW/ - Today international experts are urging all governments in Canada to not to neglect the role of 'natural solutions' to the climate change crisis. As stated in an Open Letter to the First Ministers released today:

"We are writing you today to seriously consider expanding and strengthening your respective protected areas systems. Without taking such steps you risk exacerbating the problem of climate change. Right now Canada has just under 10% of its land base protected. We urge you to significantly increase this amount as part of your respective climate change strategies."

"Without protected areas, the challenges would be even greater, and their strengthening will yield one of the most powerful solutions to the climate crisis," said Nigel Dudley, ecologist and industrial fellow at the University of Queensland. Protected areas help prevent the loss of carbon that is already present in vegetation, peat, and soils. They also help society cope with climate change impacts by maintaining essential services upon which people depend.

The experts, in Toronto for one day only, are promoting the findings of their new report called Natural Solutions: protected areas helping people cope with climate change. The report was authored by a team of trained ecologists, economists, and other experts.

"In the rush for 'new' solutions to climate change, we are in danger of neglecting a proven alternative," says Nik Lopoukhine, formerly Director General Parks Canada, a Canadian and Chair of the World Commission on Protected Areas. "Protected areas are an investment which societies have made for a millennia, using traditional approaches which have proven their potential and effectiveness in modern times," added Lopoukhine.

"Actually, expanding protected area coverage and involving indigenous and local communities in these efforts could be one of the most effective ways to reinforce nature and peoples resilience to climate change" said The Nature Conservancy's Trevor Sandwith, a co-author from South Africa, who is also Deputy Chair of the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas.

With 2010 being the International Year of Biodiversity, maintaining and expanding protected areas needs to be recognized as a powerful tool against climate change and should be a component of national and sub-national climate change strategies. Protected areas play a major role in reducing climate changing carbon dioxide emissions in the atmosphere. In Canada, over 4 billion tons of carbon dioxide is sequestered in 39 national parks, estimated to be worth $39-87 billion in carbon credits. Two provinces have recently made significant commitments to protect the massive carbon stores of the Boreal Forest.

"We certainly want to encourage full implementation of Premier McGuinty's global leading announcement from July 2008 to permanently protect more than half of its northern Boreal Forest with local indigenous communities," added Lopoukhine. The Premier highlighted the important role protecting these natural carbon sinks have in helping to stave off the worst impacts of climate change. Ontario's Boreal Forest including the Hudson Bay Lowlands is one of the richest carbon reserves in the world.

The Natural Solutions report was commissioned by the IUCN WCPA and funded and supported by The Nature Conservancy, the United Nations Development Programme, Wildlife Conservation Society, the World Bank and WWF. It can be downloaded at: http://cmsdata.iucn.org/downloads/natural_solutions.pdf

A summary in French, English and Spanish is also available.

For further information: or to set up interviews with the authors, please contact: Anna Baggio, (416) 453-3285 mobile

COPENHAGEN, Denmark - Premier Greg Selinger today committed the
provincial government to moving forward with legislation enabling
the creation of a cap-and-trade system to reduce greenhouse-gas
emissions in Manitoba.  He said the system will be subject to
public consultations in 2010.

"Manitoba is playing a constructive role in focusing on
commitments, goals and targets that we and other leading
sub-national governments can take," Selinger said.  "Market
mechanisms like cap-and-trade will play a large role in the
global effort to address climate change in a cost-effective
manner.  Cap-and-trade legislation will complement Manitoba's
participation in regional climate-change strategies like the
Western Climate Initiative and Midwestern Greenhouse Gas
Reduction Accord."

Selinger made the announcement at the Climate Leaders Summit
2009, sponsored by The Climate Group, being held in Copenhagen
today as a side-event to the UN Conference on Climate
Change. Selinger was invited to participate along with 60 other
climate-change leaders from sub-national and local governments,
and innovative climate-solution businesses from around the world.

"The Climate Leaders Summit provides an opportunity to share
practical strategies related to clean-energy development,
low-carbon technology and regional co-operation on climate
change," said Selinger.  "These are areas where Manitoba has
taken an early leadership role and they are vitally important for
creating new green economic opportunities for the future."

As part of the Climate Leaders Summit, Selinger is also hosting a
round-table discussion titled Power to the People:  Our Clean
Energy Future.  The session involves close to 20 government and
business participants, speaking on the policies that promote
renewable energy development and expand clean-energy technology
solutions.

"This panel discussion between business and government leaders
will demonstrate how government and industry can work together to
build a low-carbon economy of the future," said Selinger. "These
discussions will help to create momentum at the UN Conference and
motivation for committed long-term actions to reduce emissions."

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