On October 9th I asked various questions during Estimates for the Department of Sustainable Development. These related to the net impact of the governments climate change program in relation to carbon savings, the plans with regard to nitrous oxide emissions, the plans to address algal blooms - specifically with regard to the City of Winnipeg's need to reduce phosphorous going to Lake Winnipeg and on composting plans. My questions and the Minister's answers are below:
Hon. Jon Gerrard (River
Heights): Yes, it looks like
I have a relatively short time, so I'm going to ask several questions at once
and the minister can see if she can–what the responses in her–with the carbon
savings account, it appears quite possible that there could be savings of
energy, fossil fuel use, on an existing building that would be positive, but at
the same time there will be new buildings being built, which could actually use
more carbon, and so that you could have a net increase instead of a net
decrease.
Second, when it
comes to agricultural carbon savings, with fossil fuels being used, for
example, it's quite easy to measure the total amount, you know, by building or
a car, but when it comes to agriculture, the amount of carbon stored in the
ground or the amount of nitrous oxide that released into the air needs a more
direct measurement or assessment. And so will the Province be prepared to
invest in ensuring that that measurement will be made, so that you can actually
give people credits for those carbon savings?
Third, there's a
priority you have mentioned among many to address the tremendous algal bloom
problems. There have been councillors, I believe, who've written to the
Province asking for help in pushing forward the interim solution. Will the
Province respond to that?
And lastly, with
the composting, one of the big problems has been finding a place that–a
location where the composting can occur. And the Samborskis have been involved
in composting, but there's a major problem in getting a place that's
going to be acceptable, and so there needs to be some action, I would suggest,
by the Province, in making sure that there's somewhere where the composting
could actually be done.
Ms. Squires: Well, I thank the member for those four questions,
and I will try to answer all four of those questions in the time allotted to
one question. I do ask forgiveness if I am unable to achieve that.
Let's first start with
the Carbon Savings Account and the buildings. And we certainly do know that we
need to look at retrofits as well as new builds in order to achieve our target
of moving towards a low-carbon future.
I'd like to point out
that we announced 20 new schools. Some of them are already under construction.
They will all be LEED-certified schools, and I would like to point out that we
have the first LEED Platinum school in the country, I believe, that was built
in Amber Trails. I think it was the second school to achieve that
certification, but that's certainly something that we're moving towards.
All of our new buildings
will be built to a new standard that will take carbon emission reductions into
account. And working with our existing stock of buildings, we need to move
forward and apply retrofits and do initiatives to ensure that there are emission
reductions savings to be found in existing buildings. And the growth of new
buildings, if the member was wondering, is that being taken into account in our
reductions? Absolutely. Our reductions target will continuously be growing in
ambition, and we will see those reductions that will be reported through the
national inventory, but we will be working in concert with both existing
buildings and our new buildings to achieve carbon emission reductions.
In terms of
giving credit for carbon sequestration on the ground, we know that enhancing
our carbon sequestration monitoring systems will enable us to better
estimate our GHGs in the future, and establishing this monitoring system is,
certainly, a goal of ours. It's not always easy to determine how many–how much
carbon is being sequestered on a particular landscape, and so we are–we did
receive advice from our Expert Advisory Council on actions that can improve
that carbon sequestration potential, and how these actions could be considered
in those future carbon savings accounts.
Ultimately, we know here
in Manitoba we do want to get credit for the carbon emissions that we're going
to pull out of the atmosphere when we are supplying our clean electricity to
jurisdictions south of the border through the creation and implementation of
the Manitoba-Minnesota transmission line.
We'd love to get those
credits for the carbon emissions that will be achieved when Wisconsin shuts off
the coal, or if we get–when we get our power into Saskatchewan, when
Saskatchewan shuts down its coal.
And, likewise, we
also want to have all of our landowners in the province of Manitoba to also
achieve credit and feel that they are–that they're getting results when they
want to be a partner in transitioning to the low-carbon future. We want them to
be assured of their contributions. And so we're coming up with that monitoring
system and working with many people to achieve those outcomes.
When it comes to
Lake Winnipeg, let me be clear: the Province sets out targets for nutrients in
legislation, and we do expect the City to abide by those–abide by that
legislation. They did file a notice of alteration, and we are currently
reviewing that notice of alteration. But let me be clear: there is no interim
plan that the City has proposed in that notice of alteration.
And so I am working very
collaboratively with the City to simply say to them that if you want to put
forward an interim solution, please do so and the Province would be willing to
take a look at that, as well as the other aspects of their notice of
alteration, but that has been received by the department and it is currently
under review.
In terms of
composting, we do work with many licence holders who currently have composting
facilities, and anyone who wants to expand their composting facility, or
perhaps build a new one, we are working with them to ensure that they get the
proper and appropriate licences. Also working with municipalities, and you can
imagine, you mentioned, the Samborski situation. We know that there are certain
challenges with composting facilities, and it does require collaboration. So we
are collaborating with all licence holders and municipalities.
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