Policies - Environment

Ecological Sanitation — Fracking Ban — Forestry Policy — Potable Water Conservation — Environmental Impact Assessments — Land Use & Conservation — Spring Bear Hunt and Animal Traps — Sustainable End-of-life Options — Water Protection

Environment – Ecological Sanitation

Reviewed: Dec 2022
Approved: 12 February 2023

Whereas:

Sewer and distributed wastewater treatment systems are inherently capital and energy intensive;
These often result in an adverse impact on human health and ecosystem deterioration, and produce no useful product;
Ecological sanitation systems exist that cause none of the sewer and wastewater systems’ problems; and
The infrastructures cost far less, and they produce a useful agricultural end product;

Be It Resolved:

The Green Party of Manitoba supports:

Moving toward ecological sanitation by implementing low-cost, on-site, excreta recycling technologies resulting in dry compost;
Incentivizing the purchase and installation of composting toilets;
Changing building codes to implement composting toilets; and
Applying the technology and systems to collect and repurpose household compost.

Environment – Fracking Ban

Approved: 12 February 2023

Whereas:

Hydraulic fracturing has occurred in most of Manitoba’s 5,194 active oil wells;
The Province of Manitoba currently has no regulations that would require oil companies to report the type and amount of fracking chemicals used, nor the amount of fresh water used in the process; and
Among the possible dangers inherent in fracking is the permanent contamination of groundwater with toxic chemicals;

Be It Resolved:

The Green Party of Manitoba supports:

a ban on hydraulic fracturing.

Environment – Forestry Policy

Approved: 6 December 2021
Whereas:

Ecological goods and services provided by forests are irreplaceable, such as purify the air and water, soil productivity, carbon storage, flood prevention and erosion prevention, humidifying the atmosphere, climate change adaptation and mitigation;
Deforestation would be detrimental to the tourism industry and our collective connection to nature;
Living trees provide many different benefits such as: outdoor recreation, hunting, fishing, timber, spiritual significance, harvesting of food and medicine, wildlife habitat, and beautification of the landscape;
Forests are critical to protecting Manitoba’s biodiversity;
Clear-cutting our forest is unsustainable;
Selective cutting is the practice of removing selected trees in a forest so that growth of other trees or not affected and the majority of the trees are left standing;
Patch cutting is the removal of tree from a forest stand by cutting between 0.5 hectares and 2 hectares of mature trees down, significantly less than a typical clear cut;
Annual allowable cut is the annual amount of timber that can be harvested on a sustainable basis within a defined forest area;
Forest management license areas are designated land areas given to a forestry company to log by the provincial government. This then allows them to create a forest management plan approved by the government; and
Healthy, diverse forests can better cope with disturbances and continue to function as viable ecosystems;

Be It Resolved:

The Green Party of Manitoba supports:

Eliminating the use of clear-cutting as a harvesting method, by supporting the use of selective logging and patch cutting;
Ensuring tree species diversity in re-planting of logged areas
Investing in more value-added forestry to reduce our reliance on exporting raw logs;
Capping the Annual Allowable Cut (AAC) for all forest management license areas (FMLAs) thus preventing the expansion of clear-cutting and forestry in Manitoba;
Reviewing how Forest Management Licenses are granted and revise the process to be in accordance with the precautionary principle and approach;
Ensuring rigorous environmental assessments are conducted prior to issuance of new or renewal logging permits;
A reduction in the spraying of pesticides due to their negative impacts on biological diversity ultimately leading to an overall ban
Creating a recycled content standard for paper products sold in Manitoba;
Promoting alternatives such as hemp and agricultural cellulose to be used in the production of paper products;
Promote a certification standard which recognizes the full economic, environmental and social benefits of forests, in order to increase the sustainability of forest ecosystems; and
Opposing terms of USMCA trade agreements, that require Manitoba to clear-cut and export our forests;

Be It Further Resolved:

The Green Party of Manitoba amend the Forest Act of Manitoba to:

Include private woodlots.
Permanently protect all existing provincial parks from any form of commercial logging.

Be It Further Resolved:

The Green Party of Manitoba encourage the use of alternatives to wood pulp to produce paper by:

Implementing a mandatory government purchasing requirement regarding recycled content paper; and
Prioritizing the adoption of paperless government operations wherever possible;

Be It Further Resolved:

The Green Party of Manitoba consult local people in our planning by:

Holding meaningful consultations and accommodations throughout Manitoba with Indigenous people, local residents, and all other stakeholders to create provincial standards and best practices that will ensure the long-term health of our forests.

Environment – Potable Water Conservation

Approved: 12 February 2023

Whereas:

Treated potable water is a valuable commodity;
In most residences 50% of the treated potable water is used to supply water for toilets – a waste of resources; and
Water reclamation systems are available “off-the shelf” and, in addition, rainwater can easily be diverted for toilet flushing purposes;

Be It Resolved:

The Green Party of Manitoba supports:

Mandating that all building permits for residential, commercial, institutional and industrial buildings include a water reclamation system so that only minimal amounts of treated water are used for toilet flushing.

Environment – Environmental Impact Assessments

Reviewed: Dec, 2022
Approved: 12 February 2023

Whereas:

Our individual and collective well-being is directly related to the well-being of the natural world;
It is imperative that the natural environment be better preserved and protected in the future than it has been in the past; to do so will mean better and more consistently assessing all individual and collective actions in terms of their ecological and environmental impact;
Governments have a responsibility to ensure that appropriate measures are taken to preserve and protect the natural environment;
Environmental assessments are intended to minimize or avoid harmful environmental impacts before they occur¹; and
Provinces and thus taxpayers have been required to cover the costs of remediation of mine sites and environmental disasters^{2, 3}: In April 2022, Manitoba pledged $50,000,000 towards the clean-up of orphaned mines that were abandoned by private owners⁴;

Be it Resolved:

The Green Party of Manitoba supports:

Mandating rigorous environmental impact assessments, independent from the industry but paid for by the proponents, of all projects that may cause significant environmental impacts or are of particular public interest, including but not limited to all current and future fossil fuel exploration and production activities;
Ensuring the social, economic and health impacts on a community as well as the environmental impacts of a proposed project are considered;
Requiring mitigation procedures for the safe disposal of all solid, liquid and gaseous waste streams for both current and new extractive industry projects;
Ensuring new production begins only upon the completion of the impact assessment on all waste streams;
Requiring greater scrutiny of the assessment process, including meaningful opportunities for public consultation, to ensure that projects causing unacceptable effects on the environment are not allowed to proceed or are subject to strict conditions to mitigate harm;
Implementing clear and enforceable follow-up mechanisms to ensure sustainability after projects are built;
Holding project owners responsible for any and all clean-up and remediation costs associated with their project;

Project owners will additionally be required at the outset of their project to create and show evidence of a trust fund designated exclusively for any clean-up and/or remediation costs associated with the project;
Funds in this trust will be entirely protected from any creditors associated with the project owner;
Parent companies of the direct owner of the project will also be held liable for any costs associated with project clean-up or remediation in the event the funds in the trust are insufficient.

Removing the ability of government ministers and bureaucrats to veto or forego assessments, thus ensuring a fair and consistent playing field for all project proponents; and
No project should get a green light unless the proponent can show that all serious risks can be safely managed.

References:

Environment – Land Use & Conservation

Approved: 12 February 2023

Whereas:

Irresponsible land use planning, degradation of land through human activity, and changes in land quality and availability due to climate change mean that land must be managed so as to ensure sustainable human development and safeguard biodiversity;
Urban sprawl contributes to a variety of health problems, including obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and respiratory disease¹;
Urban development that relies on and necessitates automobile use will produce more air pollutants such as ozone and airborne particulates²;
Cities that are designed around automobile use provide fewer opportunities for citizens to walk, cycle or otherwise engage in active transportation to get to work, school or for leisure:

Exercise is critical to managing and avoiding many health conditions including among others obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular function and stress.

Urban sprawl also leads to a loss of open space and degradation of wildlife habitat, as well as natural ecosystems that provide vital ecosystem services such as air purification and water filtration³;
The creation of complete communities, where key services and resources are within walking distance for residents, addresses several public goals, including mitigating climate change, increasing affordability, reducing infrastructure costs, promoting better public health and championing equity⁴;
Canada, along with 115 other countries, signed the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), to protect and conserve 30% of the planet’s land and ocean by 2030⁵; and
In Manitoba, protected areas constitute only 11% of our land and water⁶;

Be It resolved:

The Green Party of Manitoba supports:

Urban planning for Manitoba’s largest population centres that includes high population density, walkable and bikeable neighborhoods, preserved green spaces, mixed-use development, available mass transit, and limited road construction;
Working towards the concept of 15-minute cities for Manitoba’s urban population centres – in which all residents can meet their essential needs, such as grocery stores – within a 15 minute walk or bike ride from their home; and
Support the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) by increasing Manitoba’s protected areas to 30% by 2030.

References:

Environment – Spring Bear Hunt and Animal Traps

Approved: 27 February 2022

Whereas:

It is estimated that there are between 25-30,000 black bears in Manitoba^{1, 2};
MB doesn’t actively monitor black bear populations³;
Bears have their litters in spring, and bear cubs need to remain with their mother for approximately 16-17 months to ensure survival of the cubs⁴;
Banning the killing of female bears accompanied by cubs is, for practical purposes, unenforceable;
Approximately 4000 bears are legally killed in MB each year, about 50% of which is normally conducted by foreign-based hunters⁵;
The government of Manitoba does not track the number of female bears killed during the spring bear hunt;
In Ontario, approximately one third of the bears killed during the Ontario spring bear hunt are female⁶;
There is no ceiling on the number of black bear hunting licences available to purchase in a given year⁷;
Bears lose considerable weight during hibernation and are in a weakened state when they emerge from hibernation in the spring;
Bear hunting typically involves using food bait, often human food containing sugar, to attract bears;
Bear habituation to human food is a common cause of bear-human conflict;
There are human, non-lethal methods to minimize bear-human conflict⁸; and
The spring bear hunt is not an effective strategy for addressing bear-human conflict;

Be It Resolved:

The Green Party of Manitoba will:

Work to improve the wildlife existence in this province by increasing protection for critical habitat;
Ban logging and mining in provincial parks, and increase the percentage of Manitoba’s forests which remain undisturbed;
Call for a ban on the spring bear hunt which leaves so many orphaned bear cubs each spring;
Work with those who depend on trapping in order to feed their families; and
Raise awareness and support the use of humane methods which reduce animal suffering.

References:

Environment – Sustainable End-of-life Options

Approved: 9 July 2024

Whereas:

Manitoba currently allows traditional burial, cremation, and green burial (traditional burial without casket or embalming);
Both cremation and traditional burial have significant environmental impacts, particularly the embalming process which releases toxic chemicals into the environment ^1,2;
Cremation is a carbon-intensive process, each cremation releasing about one quarter of a tonne of CO2, roughly equivalent to two full tanks of gasoline. It also releases vapourized heavy metals such as mercury ³;
Traditional burial prolongs the decomposition process and consumes a large amount of valuable land for a long period of time. This requires space, roads, and upkeep, often involving fertilizers and the use of vast amounts of water ⁴;
The wood used for caskets in traditional burial often uses non-sustainably harvested wood. In the US, this is estimated at 4 million acres of forest per year ⁵;
Green Burials, which are legal in Canada, are a viable alternative, using no embalming and a natural setting. Decomposition may take over 20 years;
Aquamation or “water cremation” uses alkaline hydrolysis to decompose the body rapidly. It uses less water than an average household uses in a day ⁶. It is only available in Newfoundland and Labrador, Ontario, Quebec, and Saskatchewan. Aquamation is legal in Manitoba for pets;
Human composting or “terramation” is a recently developed technique that uses controlled temperature and moisture and microbe levels to quickly compost the body, returning about a cubic yard of healthy soil after 30 to 45 days ⁷. It is not legal anywhere in Canada, and
Some companies in Oregon are now offering human composting to Canadians. To bypass Canadian laws, however, the remains have to be shipped from Canada to Oregon for composting, increasing costs and carbon impact.

Be It Resolved:

The Green Party of Manitoba proposes

Legalizing water cremation (aquamation) for human remains in Manitoba, and
Legalizing human composting (terramation) for human remains in Manitoba.

References:

1. The environmental pollution caused by cemeteries and cremations, Pubmed [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35985390/]
2. Inorganic Soil Contamination from Cemetery Leachate – Springer, October 2023 [https://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A:1005186919370]
3. Us Cremation Bad for the Environment – Earth Funeral [https://earthfuneral.com/resources/is-cremation-bad-for-environment/]
4. Green end-of-life options – David Suzuki [https://davidsuzuki.org/living-green/green-end-of-life-options/]
5. Why Conventional Burial Harms the Environment – Milton Fields Georgia [https://miltonfieldsgeorgia.com/conventional-burial-harms-environment/]
6. Green end-of-life options – David Suzuki [https://davidsuzuki.org/living-green/green-end-of-life-options/]
7. Human Composting vs Aquamation: A Comparative Analysis – Earth Funeral [https://earthfuneral.com/resources/human-composting-vs-aquamation/]

Environment – Water Protection

Approved: 2004
Updated: July 2023
Approved: 9 July 2024

Whereas:

Water is an important natural resource in Manitoba; Manitoba contains over 100,000 lakes, and surface water covers approximately 16% of the province ¹;
Wetlands deliver important ecosystem services including carbon capture, and the filtration of sediment and nutrients from downstream lakes and drinking water supplies²;
- In South-western Manitoba alone, we lose approximately 6 hectares of wetlands every day ³.
Wetlands can cool the air temperature in local fields by up to three degrees Celsius, reducing heat stress in vulnerable crops ^4,5;
Lake Winnipeg is the second-largest watershed in Canada; 14 First Nations live on Lake Winnipeg’s shores and the lake generates $25million in fishing revenue annually; yet the water quality of the lake continues to degrade due to nutrient overload ⁶;
The North End Sewage Treatment plant in Winnipeg is the biggest single point source of pollution into Lake Winnipeg ⁷;
Agricultural activity, from chemical fertilizer to unrecovered animal waste, is the largest contributor to nutrient loading (phosphorus and nitrogen) into Lake Winnipeg ⁸, and
Western Hudson Bay is a globally significant wildlife habitat, and is home to some of the largest concentrations of beluga whales and polar bears in the world ⁹.

Be it resolved:

The Green Party of Manitoba supports:

Federal government initiatives to ban bulk water exports;
Legislating watershed reserves for the protection of domestic water sources and, within those watersheds, banning logging, road building, pesticide use, grazing, and industrial development;
Implementing enforceable protection of remaining wetlands, whereby future drainage of these areas would require compensation to replace the lost ecological services provided by those wetlands;
Working towards a net gain of wetland ecological function, we will support solutions for water management on Manitoba farms that mimics that natural function of wetlands while providing producers with accessible water resources;
Banning the privatization of municipal water and wastewater services;
Banning the deposition of untreated human and livestock sewage into waterways; Prioritizing and accelerating the upgrade of the Winnipeg North End Sewage Treatment Plant;
Requiring the phase-out of chlorination water treatment systems, replacing them with ozonation, ultra-violet sterilization, sand filtration, and other safer water purification systems;
Making vigorous efforts to protect surface and ground water by increasing enforcement of existing laws and regulations, and adopting ecological sanitation technologies to process manure.Working towards sustainable agriculture solutions including:
- Reduction in synthetic nitrogen fertilizer;
- Taxation of nitrogen fertilizer and pesticides;
- Reduction in cattle and hog numbers in Manitoba, and
- Supporting farmers to implement Agricultural Beneficial Management Practices (BMPs) such as managing manure and fertilizers, and establishing holding ponds near animal feedlots.
The creation of a National Marine Conservation Area in Western Hudson Bay.

References

1. Environment and Climate Change, Lakes, Beaches and Rivers – Government of Manitoba [https://www.gov.mb.ca/sd/water/lakes-beaches-rivers/index.html]
2. The Impacts of Wetlands Loss in Manitoba – Government of Manitoba [https://www.gov.mb.ca/sd/water/watershed/iwmp/netley/documentation/wetlands_and_water_management_netley.pdf]
3. Lake Winnipeg Foundation (Broken Link) [https://lakewinnipegfoundation.org/keeping-water-land]
4. Farmers in Manitoba urged to “make the all” on World Wetlands Day (Ducks Unlimited Canada) – CISION Newswire, 31 January 2023 [https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/farmers-in-manitoba-urged-to-make-the-call-on-world-wetlands-day-802717558.html#:~:text=To%20reward%20conservation%2Dminded%20Manitobans,who%20commit%20to%20protecting%20wetlands]
5. New research from Ducks Unlimited Canada and the University of Saskatchewan demonstrates climate-cooling effects of wetlands – Ducks Unlimited Canada, 04 April 2022 [https://www.ducks.ca/news/national/new-research-demonstrates-climate-cooling/]
6. Lake Winnipeg Foundation (Broken Link) [https://lakewinnipegfoundation.org/lake-winnipeg]
7. 3 levels of government put up total of $550M for Phase 2 of North End sewage plant upgrades – CBC News, 16 August 2022 [https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/north-end-sewage-plant-funding-1.6552424]
8. 5-year fight removes less than 1% of phosphorus from Lake Winnipeg basin – CBC News, 17 September 2017 [https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/north-end-sewage-plant-funding-1.6552424]
9. Western Hudson Bay and its Beluga Estuaries: protecting abundance for a sustainable future, oceansnorth.org [https://www.oceansnorth.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Western-Hudson-Bay-Report-Oceans-North.pdf]

(see also Human Rights – Access to Clean Water)