Dougald Lamont and the Manitoba Liberal Party announced the first environmental planks of their 2023 election platform today. A media release said this “includes creating a new $300-million per year Green Fund to help Manitobans create new green jobs, reduce energy costs, and fight climate change through rewilding. “Rewilding” means restoring ecosystems to their original state: Bringing back natural forests, grasslands, lakes, rivers and wetlands, while linking them together in ecological corridors to encourage the wildlife to recover.”
“To make a difference in climate change, we need to make it easier for Manitobans to contribute and do the right thing and that’s what the Green Fund will do,” said Dougald Lamont,
Manitoba Liberal Party Leader and MLA for St. Boniface. “Manitoba Liberals have a plan to work with Manitobans and help them invest in rewilding and electrification. The time is now to start paying back our climate debt and leave a better province and planet to future generations.”
The release says “To grow a greener Manitoba, a Manitoba Liberal Government will create a Green Fund of $300-million a year that will support Manitobans to help people plant trees, offer energy-saving retrofits, establish EV charging stations and fund rewilding programs in partnership with First Nations, Municipalities and private landowners. The fund will be independently run by Efficiency Manitoba with funding contributions from the carbon levy and smaller contributions from Manitoba Hydro.”
The Manitoba Liberals also promise to take back control over pollution pricing from the Federal Government to have a fully made-in-Manitoba Plan. Eligible projects under the Green Fund will include:
• Funding for rewilding and the creation of wilderness/ecological corridors with restored
natural forests, wetlands and wildlife habitat, with the active participation of
stakeholders and rights holders.
• Working with producers to reduce high-intensity GhG gases to reduce the impact of
agricultural greenhouse emissions, such as Nitrous Oxide (NO2), which are hundreds of
times worse than CO2.
• Lowering energy costs with new green building codes for new builds and retrofits
• Residential and commercial green retrofits to reduce home energy costs.
• New electric charging infrastructure in collaboration with Manitoba Hydro.
The Liberals are also promising to repurpose land back to its native landscape by protecting wilderness with a focus on ecological corridors. The party says they have already introduced a bill in the Manitoba Legislature that would allow wildlife to recover as they connect larger territories for species to roam, breed, and grow.
“We will work with farmers, Indigenous communities and municipalities to create wilderness corridors and restore habitats such as natural forests, wetlands, grasslands,” said Dr. Jon
Gerrard, Manitoba Liberal Environment Critic and MLA for River Heights. “We will also fund significant efforts to remove invasive species towards this goal.”
They also say “a Manitoba Liberal Government will work with First Nations, municipalities, farmers, and other stakeholders to increase the amount of protected areas in Manitoba to 30% by 2030 – and are committed to helping Manitoba become the first province in the country to reach net-zero in GHG emissions by 2034.”
