Feds distribute climate-action cash to two local organizations

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 19/01/2020 (1705 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A pair of local organizations are getting a funding boost from the federal government to help them co-ordinate in the fight against climate change.

The Assiniboine Park Conservancy and Eco-West Canada are among the latest beneficiaries of the federal Climate Action Fund, receiving $100,000 each.

Minister of Environment and Climate Change Jonathan Wilkinson announced the grants in Winnipeg Monday alongside Dan Vandal, the minister of Northern Affairs.

The conservancy will use the money to collaborate with high schools across the province in climate-action planning and to fund a trip for about 20 students to Churchill in February. Eco-West plans on spending its new funds on risk mitigation training for Prairie municipalities.

The Climate Action Fund provides up to $3 million annually to combat what Vandal called “the defining issue of our time.”

Wilkinson called climate change an urgent matter.

“We know we don’t have a lot of time to act,” he said.

Asked whether $3 million per year is enough to adequately support grassroots climate action, Wilkinson described the federal government’s overall climate plan, which includes roughly $60 billion in green economic commitments over a decade, starting in 2016.

“It’s $60 to $70 billion and we all know that’s the beginning,” he said. “That’s the down payment on the work that we are going to have to do as we look to achieving a net-zero society in 2050.”

Wilkinson, along with the rest of the federal ministers, was in the city as part of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s three-day cabinet retreat.

Trudeau met with Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister Monday, and the province’s potential carbon tax was a key topic. The Tory politician had previously proposed a tax which fell below the federal benchmark, and was rejected by Ottawa.

After the meeting, Pallister told reporters the province deserved credit for the work it had done to reduce carbon emissions.

“We’ve put billions of dollars at risk to green up the environment, and we deserve respect for that,” he said.

Wilkinson rebuffed the suggestion of a provincial credit for prior carbon-reduction efforts, saying, “At the end of the day, the challenges that we are facing is of the emissions that exist today.”

“We need to prepare to take account of those emissions and our plan as to how we’re going to reduce emissions that exist today on a go-forward basis, so I’m much more interested in conversations about how we’re going to do that and how we look forward,” he added.

The federal government is not yet accepting applications for its next round of climate action funding. Last year, the deadline was in May.

ben.waldman@freepress.mb.ca

—with files from The Canadian Press