Liberals pledge $300m green fund if elected

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This article was published 24/08/2023 (958 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba Liberal leader Dougald Lamont pointed to Canada’s devastating wildfire season as evidence of the costs of not dealing with climate change.

“When I’m out knocking on doors, I can taste the smoke,” he said as he announced his party’s environmental platform on Wednesday. “The sun is a hazy red because our boreal forests are on fire and they’re smothering the world. The costs to everyone are already huge. The emergency costs, the impact on farmers, on agriculture and wildlife … we have huge storms, once in 1,000 years storms wiping out roads in Western Manitoba.”

Lamont pledged that, if elected, a Liberal government would create a $300-million “green fund” to combat climate change and improve energy efficient and enter negotiations with the federal government for a Manitoba-specific carbon tax solution.

The green fund, mostly funded by contributions from a provincial carbon levy with smaller contributions from Manitoba Hydro, would support the planting of trees, help Manitobans pay for energy-efficient retrofits to their buildings and install electric vehicle charging stations. It would also and establish “rewilding program” for First Nations, municipalities and private landowners. Rewilding, as the Liberals explain it, is the process of bringing ecosystems back to their original states and linking them together in ecological corridors, like the Little Saskatchewan River and the Red River, to promote the well-being of wildlife.

Lamont also said that a Liberal government would use the fund to restore 50-50 transit funding for Winnipeg and could be used to help boost transit in Brandon.

Gaining more control over a provincial carbon tax and establishing the fund wouldn’t cost Manitobans any more than they already do under the terms imposed by the federal government, Lamont said.

In the Progressive Conservatives’ first term in office, former Premier Brian Pallister helped introduce the “Made-in-Manitoba Climate and Green Plan” that included a flat tax of $25 per tonne of carbon rather than the variable one introduced at the federal level. The federal government judged that to be insufficient and forced its own plan on the province. Manitoba sued, but lost in federal court.

Early this year, current Premier Heather Stefanson announced a $200-million Carbon Tax Relief Fund to send $225 to each individual and $375 to each couple in Manitoba to alleviate the financial pressures she said the federal tax was putting on Manitobans.

Lamont likened the Tories’ approach to taking their hands off the wheel and letting someone else steer.

“The feds say that every province always has the opportunity to custom design their own green plan within the federal framework,” Lamont said. “So, it makes a huge difference in what we’re able to do, but it also means that the provincial government actually decides where the money goes.”

He said that he’s open to negotiating for provisions like a grain drying exemption for farmers.

The Liberal leader said that paying for things like energy retrofits will help permanently reduce the cost Manitobans pay for energy and the cost of dealing with climate change.

On Monday, the Manitoba NDP pledged that they would put a temporary pause on the 14 cent per litre provincial gas tax if elected while inflation remains high.

“What the NDP are proposing is fiscally irresponsible,” Lamont said. “They’re talking about borrowing over $100 million so that people can save 14 cents at the pump. It’s also an environmental disaster, it makes no sense to be spending public money on what is really a subsidy for oil companies.”

The NDP did not make a representative available for an interview before the Sun’s deadline, but a party spokesperson sent background information defending the gas tax promise.

“Gas is an inelastic commodity. That means that regardless of gas prices, the average families’ gas consumption will most often not change,” the spokesperson wrote in an email. “We think that in this period of high inflation working families who drive for work and have to go hockey practice deserve a break — that’s why we are committed to cutting the gas tax while inflation remains high.”

They also said the NDP has more climate announcements in the works, including one relating to electric vehicle charging stations.

The Progressive Conservatives did not respond to a request for comment on this story.

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