(Video screengrab from BJordan.liberal.ca)

Rural development strategy sought in federal shuffle

Rural economic development has been given a promotion at the federal level in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s latest cabinet shuffle. In the shuffle, following the departure of Treasury Board president Scott Brison from cabinet, Trudeau on Monday called up Bernadette Jordan, MP for the southern Nova Scotia riding of South Shore-St.Margaret’s, to head a newly


Seeing is believing when it comes to adopting green energy

Seeing is believing when it comes to adopting green energy

People are more likely to invest in renewable technology when they see it being used in the community

Governments at all levels need to invest more heavily in promoting renewable energy if they want citizens to adopt these technologies, new research suggests. University of Alberta environmental sociologist John Parkins led a study to find out what motivates Canadians to use renewable energy, specifically solar panels, in their everyday lives. After surveying 2,065 people

Premier Brian Pallister and Sustainable Development Minister Rochelle Squires unveiled the Made-in-Manitoba Climate and Green Plan Oct. 27, 2017 at Oak Hammock Marsh. The plan included a flat $25-a-tonne carbon tax and programs to cut carbon emissions. Last week Pallister announced since Ottawa is going to impose its carbon tax on Manitoba, the province won’t implement its tax. However, the green plan programs will still go ahead, he said.

Manitoba scraps carbon tax in anticipation Ottawa will impose its own

But Premier Pallister wants Ottawa’s carbon tax to include the same exemptions for farmers as Manitoba’s

The Manitoba government won’t launch its Made-in-Manitoba carbon tax because Ottawa is imposing its own, but Manitoba is going ahead with the carbon reduction programs in its Climate and Green Plan. The province also says when the federal government starts taxing carbon here the same exemptions for farmers set out under Manitoba’s cancelled tax should

University of Winnipeg’s Brandyn Berg, who looks after energy management and special projects at the downtown university says they’re very excited about their new biomass heating system and hope it gets more thinking about using renewable 
energy sources.

University pioneering urban biomass heating

The University of Winnipeg’s new biomass heating system will be a model for other institutions, 
say proponents of alternative energy sources

When school starts this fall, the University of Winnipeg will flip the switch on a novel way to keep downtown buildings heated — with boilers that burn wood pellets. Last fall the downtown university took delivery of two 100-kilowatt biomass boilers, to provide supplementary heating a steam plant now provides for its Ashdown, Manitoba and


Melissa Pawlisch, director with the University of Minnesota’s Clean Energy Resource Teams (CERTs) was a guest speaker at the Manitoba Sustainable Energy Association conference in Winnipeg earlier this month.

Clean energy can drive rural economy

Speakers call for switching out some of the $4 billion now spent on fossil fuel imports to Manitoba with homegrown renewable energy sources

Businesses are powered by solar panels on rooftops in downtown Minneapolis while small towns across the state source solar energy from “solar gardens” and farms harness the power of the sun to power up their barns. Minnesota has become a leading U.S. state for its adoption of solar and other renewable energy sources, thanks to


Solar power push lights up options for India’s rural women

Keeping the lights on — and factories running — with solar panels has been a game changer

Thomson Reuters Foundation – In her village of Komalia, the fog swirls so thick at 7 a.m. that Akansha Singh can see no more than 15 metres ahead. But the 20-year-old is already cycling to her workplace, nine kilometres away. Halfway there she stops for two hours at a computer training centre, where she’s learning


Looming hydro rate increases have municipal leaders worried about the rising costs to operate community infrastructure.

Carbon tax revenue use options pitched at AMM

Rural and small-town government leaders pass resolutions, propose ideas for recycling carbon taxes at 2017 fall convention

Municipal leaders in Manitoba bracing for future hydro rate increases want the province to use carbon tax revenues to offset the higher costs to their energy bills. It’s costing a small fortune now to heat spaces like public arenas and curling clubs, said Al Abraham, deputy mayor of the LGD of Pinawa. Read more: AMM

(Dave Bedard photo)

Fossil fuels here to stay… for now

Winnipeg | CNS Canada – Renewable sources of energy may be the future, but that future is not coming any time soon as fossil fuels will be needed to continue to power the world for generations, according to author and professor emeritus Vaclav Smil, speaking at the Grain World conference in Winnipeg, Nov. 14. “We