Winnipeg Sun

An environmental coalition surprised Tory Leader Hugh McFadyen Tuesday with 10,000 letters urging the province to stand firm against a major transmission line down the east side of Lake Winnipeg.

McFadyen and his party have long opposed the government's stance, arguing BiPole III should be built down the east side, rather than west of lakes Winnipegosis and Manitoba, the route the government chose in 2007.

Ron Thiessen, Manitoba director of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, had a brief discussion with McFadyen as he presented him with a CD version of the letters and one blank piece of paper symbolizing them.

"Debate and perspective on these issues is good," McFadyen said, noting that his party has "a respectful disagreement" with CPAWS and its partners in the initiative, including The Wilderness Committee, the Boreal Forest Network and the U.S.-based Natural Resources Defense Council.

The groups argue running BiPole III down the east side would jeopardize a bid to have the area designated a UNESCO World Heritage site, as well as compromising the ecological and cultural benefits of keeping the forest intact.

A spokeswoman for the Tories said the vast majority of the signatories to the letters are American, with only a handful coming from Manitoba.

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

A Manitoba conservation group is touting a planned Interlake provincial park as an ideal site for a bat attraction.

The Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society's Manitoba branch pushed the ecotourism opportunity Wednesday when gathering about 30 Fisher River-area children together in Winnipeg to educate them on the little brown bat species, which has a habitat in the area of the future park a few hours' drive north of the city.

University of Winnipeg wildlife biologist Craig Willis was on hand at the Exchange District event to share expertise on the creatures. Many of them reside in a cave in the future park region. He also debunked myths, such as that bats are "mice with wings" and that they're blind.

No bats were brought to the presentation, which used other visual aids to illustrate them.

CPAWS executive director Ron Thiessen said his organization is promoting an alignment of the boundaries of the park -- slated to become official in October -- that would best allow the bats to thrive there.

Manitoba and an Australian state have signed a memorandum of understanding at the Copenhagen climate change conference.

Premier Greg Selinger, in the Danish capital along with Conservation Minister Bill Blaikie for the UN climate conference, signed the MOU this morning with Premier Mike Rann of South Australia.

The letter commits the two jurisdictions to sharing expertise on flood mitigation, long-term drought strategies and "community capacity building and ecological goods and services programming to provide resilience to future climate change challenges."

Manitoba and South Australia signed a similar MOU in 2006 pledging to collaborate on biotechnology, renewable energy, sustainable development and Aboriginal economic opportunities.