The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
In a recent Manitoba government news release, Energy Minister Jim Rondeau announced with delight the doubling of oil production in Manitoba since 1999. How odd that a political party claiming to be ÔSeeing GreenÕ has applauded the increase in ManitobaÕs oil (and therefore greenhouse gas emitting) potential. Why is the government applauding increasing oil production? Why are the NDP and Manitoba Hydro still stuck on the old paradigm of finding more sources of energy (Òthe hard pathÓ), instead of moving into the ecologically friendly soft-path: demand-side management through community-based energy systems, capable of using a diversity of localized sources of energy (e.g., micro-solar, micro-wind, micro-hydro, biogas, etc.). This is the path that many countries in Europe are taking to meet their Kyoto targets, and move beyond them into truly sustainable societies with real energy security. Energy should be looked at as an area of investment. The investments should not be going towards finding and draining more and more sources of energy to feed our industrial infrastructure, but rather toward redesigning our infrastructure to need less energy, to use energy more efficiently and appropriately, and to tap into the potential local sources of energy. Our system today is the equivalent of driving around looking for the cheapest gas in an SUV, instead of realizing that we should be driving a hybrid, or looking more seriously at a bus pass, bicycle, and other alternatives to the automobile. Manitoba may be one of the only provinces meeting its Kyoto targets, but that doesnÕt change the fact that Canada as a whole is way behind (about 30 per cent above our allowed emissions). Manitoba must think of how it can lead the way and take on even more responsibility, so that we can show the rest of Canada and the world that we are serious about sustainability. Unfortunately we remain open to ridicule on that note when we are spending $11 billion on new hydroelectricity dams and their transmission lines in the next 15 years. That money could have been invested at the community level to develop long-lasting and sustainable energy systems that would introduce innovative technologies such as micro-wind turbines. This kind of action on the community level requires sustained government programs, deploying a range of pilot projects.
