Carbon Pricing and Climate Mitigation Backgrounder Part I

By James Magnus-Johnston The federal government has stated that if provinces don’t impose a price on carbon, it will impose its own price by 2018.  Trudeau has stated that “if neither price nor cap and trade is in …

Portage la Prairie P3 decision fails the public interest test

By Paul Moist Pursuant to new provincial and federal effluent guidelines, the City of Portage la Prairie is required to upgrade its wastewater facilities, known as the Water Pollution Control Facility (WPCF). The new Public-Private Partnership (P3) project …

Time to give back to Manitoba’s north

First published in the Winnipeg Free Press Dec. 6, 2016 By Lynne Fernandez Those of us who were hoping that the Throne Speech would have details about a strategy for Manitoba’s North were disappointed. There seems to be …

BLOG summary: “Energy East: Taking Manitoba in the Wrong Direction”

TransCanada Pipeline’s Energy East pipeline (EE), if approved, will run from Hardisty Alberta to St. John, New Brunswick and will carry bitumen from Alberta’s Tar Sands to refineries in Quebec and New Brunswick. A new Canadian Centre for …

Reversing the Damage: How the Federal Liberals can restore Hope on the Prairies

By Lynne Fernandez By 2013 the Conservative government had cut overall federal taxes and other revenues to the lowest rate seen in more than 70 years. Between 2011 and March 2015, 25,000 to 30,000 federal public sector positions …

Quit Stalling on Organic Waste Pickup

By the Green Action Centre Most major Canadian cities have organic waste pick up, including: Vancouver, Edmonton, Saskatoon, Hamilton and Toronto. Calgary will start in 2017. If Winnipeg does not move soon on this issue, we will be …

Uber not the answer to Winnipeg’s transport woes

By Scott Price Ride-sharing service Uber wants into the Winnipeg taxi market. Looking past the marketing facade, Uber isn’t innovative or inevitable. Uber is in fact de-regulation of the taxi industry, modernized using smart phone applications and an …

Investing in Social Enterprise to reduce poverty and green house gases

By Lynne Fernandez A new Errol Black Chair paper explains how a combination of governmental policies and initiatives in Manitoba allows social enterprises to reduce Manitoba’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions while training and employing Inner City workers. The …

Terminally ill professor pleads for asbestos ban

University of Manitoba professor Patricia Martens has one more mission as an epidemiologist as she confronts her final days with a terminal disease. She wants the government to stop aiding and abetting the lethal trade in asbestos. Martens …

Winnipeg mayoral debate on environmental issues

Winnipeg’s all-candidates mayoral forum on the environment will take place September 30th at the First Unitarian-Universalist Church (603 Wellington Crescent). The forum will give voters the opportunity to hear how candidates would address major environmental challenges facing Winnipeg …