NDP environment plan incomplete

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 21/08/2023 (910 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It may be a well-intentioned plan to better protect Manitoba’s environment and protect us from the worst impacts of climate change, but it comes across as a bit of a gimmick.

Last Friday, Manitoba New Democratic Party leader Wab Kinew announced that a newly-elected NDP government would protect 30 per cent of Manitoba’s lands and waters by 2030, help families purchase new and used electric vehicles, and restore funding to environmental organizations that had been cut by the current Progressive Conservative government.

In a release issued by the NDP, Kinew says “our team will take action, working with the Federal government not against them to conserve more of Manitoba’s wilderness. We’ll make clean energy choices more affordable for families and we’ll restore the Pallister-Stefanson cut funding for environmental organizations, to invest in the bright minds and innovative research that will help us fight climate change right here in Manitoba.”

As part of that action, the release also says that, “If the Manitoba NDP forms government, they will offer families a $4,000 rebate for new EVs and a $2,500 rebate for used EVs.”

At an event last Friday, Kinew told the media that, “We have to deliver incentives to help the average family make clean, safe and healthy choices to fight against global warming.” He added, “It is my firm belief that if we make it as affordable for the average family to do the environmentally friendly thing … then the average family in Manitoba will choose to do the environmentally friendly thing.”

“We have to be there to help them, and we have to be there to level the playing field so families in the province can make the right choices,” he said.

There is no doubt that many Manitobans support additional measures to protect the environment, but are unable to do so because they can’t afford the cost of many of those measures. Electric heat, wind and solar power systems and battery-powered vehicles are three obvious examples.

Given that reality, it is surprising that the NDP promises did not include commitments to assist Manitobans in switching from using fossil fuel-based heating systems to electric systems. It is just as surprising that the NDP announcement made no mention of doing more to help Manitobans invest in wind and solar-based electricity generating systems. Those are steps many Manitobans want to take, but believe they cannot afford.

Even more surprising, however, is the NDP’s promise to provide incentives to purchase new and used electric vehicles. Manitoba Liberal Party leader Dougald Lamont is correct in responding that: “There are better ways to fight climate change than with boutique rebates for electric vehicles when there are far too little charging stations in Manitoba … Restoring 50/50 transit funding in Winnipeg and other urban centres would have a much bigger and immediate impact.”

Lamont’s comments expose a weakness, a deficiency, in the NDP plan. What’s the point of assisting Manitobans to purchase EVs if there aren’t enough stations to charge their batteries? Wouldn’t it make more sense to invest in a massive expansion of charging stations before funding a massive growth in the number of EVs on Manitoba roads?

Beyond that, wouldn’t it make more sense to invest in making public transit — including public transportation options between communities — more enjoyable, affordable and accessible?

If it is in our interests to reduce the fiscal and environmental costs of road construction, expansion and maintenance, why would an NDP government favor a policy that would put more cars on the road? Why not promote a policy that would reduce the number cars, or the need for families to own multiple vehicles, by making public transit a better, more reliable choice?

These are not new ideas, but they are viable, cost-effective ideas that the current government has largely failed to embrace and support. For that reason, their absence from the NDP plan is conspicuous.

With five weeks until election day, the NDP still have time to expand upon their environmental protection plan by providing a more comprehensive set of proposals. Until they do, however, the only grade that can be given to the plan released last week is this: incomplete.