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Time to move the needle

Dear Premier Wab Kinew 

The wildfires are terrifying. Not because they’ve been anywhere near me, but because they are evidence the climate scientists have been right all along, and a hellish future of floods, fires and famines awaits us sooner than we think. And we’re just idling our cars with our "gas tax holiday" full tanks.

I was extremely disappointed to hear you briefly discuss the fires with Marcy on CBC the other morning and mention in passing the huge expense of purchasing more fire bombers, but not the reason we need them (climate change) and certainly not your failure to show any leadership on climate (pausing pollution pricing instead of embracing its potential).

Manitoba is a wonderful province and it has so much potential but we need to do so much better. And that leadership needs to come from the top.

Manitobans need massive mode shift – and it’s going to take all levels of government to fund public transit within cities, between cities and increases of active transit pathways. Not another cent for road expansions. Mass transit isn’t just better for the environment; it’s a justice issue. A rich city isn’t one where the poor drive cars but where the rich take public transit, as a mayor of Bogota has said.

Manitobans need a much better deal from Hydro to incentivize more solar installations. Hydro can’t rest on its laurels with the power of dams – not with catastrophic droughts in our future.

Manitoba needs to update the building code to ensure that whatever weather we have, we don’t need to use as much energy to protect ourselves from it.

Manitobans need to learn to value our waste better, and to work harder to ensure it can be reprocessed. It’s shameful that we’re among the last provinces to implement a deposit return system. The piddling $.10/pristine beer can is nowhere near enough in this economy.

There’s plenty that needs to be done and there’s great citizens groups like Manitoba Energy Justice Coalition, Citizens’ Climate Lobby, Climate Change Connection and more that have plenty of strong suggestions for you. Please listen to them. It’s long past time to move the needle in the opposite direction on climate change.

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