Pallister betrays Manitobans by killing carbon pricing, hollowing out climate action bill

WINNIPEG – The Wilderness Committee is calling out Premier Pallister’s provincial government for betraying Manitobans today for killing the provincial carbon tax and wasting time enacting watered-down legislation with the passing of Bill 16, The Climate and Green Plan Implementation Act.

“In this time of obvious climate chaos, this government’s Climate and Green Plan is a sham,” said Wilderness and Water Campaigner Eric Reder. “The greatest minds in the world are ringing alarm bells about the need to halve fossil fuel use, protect forests and preserve wildlife populations but the government is enacting empty legislation which addresses none of this.”

Stark warnings about the planet have been raised recently. In October the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change stated we have only a dozen years left to take serious actions to limit carbon emissions and protect forests. A week later the Nobel Prize for Economics was given to a team of researchers who promote a price on carbon as the best solution for addressing climate change. This summer the UN-backed Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services stated the loss of biodiversity is as great a threat to human well-being as climate change, and the London Zoological Society recently stated we have lost 60 per cent of all wildlife in recent decades.

“There has never been a threat like this to humanity,” said Reder. “Climate change is being referred to as the existential threat to our society and to overcome climate chaos we urgently need to come together to take new actions and build new systems.”

Manitoba is uniquely positioned to act on climate by protecting country-sized expanses of natural forest while eliminating fossil fuel use and selling our existing hydroelectricity to regions currently powered by fossil fuels. With carbon pricing removed from it, Bill 16 is nowhere near enough to preserve our well-being. 

“From the public comments at committee hearings on Bill 16 we know that Manitobans don’t want partisan bickering,” said Reder. “That is the system that got us to this place in history. Now we need our leaders to come together and take serious action on climate.”

The Wilderness Committee continues to call for the leaders of all parties in the legislature to work together in a closed-door meeting and lay the groundwork for non-partisan climate action that saves humanity from climate catastrophe. 

“What is possible for climate action? Great ideas show no party affiliation. Manitoba should lead the way by showing the world how politicians can work together and protect nature for the benefit of all society,” added Reder.

-30-
 

For more information please contact:

Eric Reder, Wilderness and Water Campaigner
204-997-8584, eric@wildernesscommittee.org