By Selena Randall
The beginning of the year often stirs thoughts about what is ahead, and I have been wondering what can we expect in 2015 for our local environment?
As Manitoba pursues its Green Plan, there are changes on the horizon that will affect those of us living in and around Steinbach. Here is just a taster of what I have been looking into.
January 1 2015 brought the Environment Amendment Act (Reducing Pesticide Exposure) into force. Steinbach City Council has petitioned against this legislation, and it’s a topic on their next meeting Agenda. The ban on many cosmetic pesticides is designed to protect human life and the environment from pesticide exposure and accumulation. The main concern of Steinbach City Council is the cost of using alternative products to maintain the current pesticide program. Their strategy to date has been to fight the ban, but now it is in place, we can only hope that they give some thought to all the possible management options for their green spaces.
Manitoba is working towards reducing the waste going to landfill. It is in Steinbach’s interests to reduce the volumes of waste going to landfill, to extend the life of the existing facility. So it’s likely we can expect a push on upping recycling and extension of the kerbside organic waste collection services. An extension of this service for RMs using the landfill would also be beneficial, but my search has revealed nothing on the horizon yet.
Local food producers and food processors are likely to benefit from promotion and support planned by the Province to help start and grow food production businesses. This is good for Steinbach, already an area with plenty of local food processors. This should support Steinbach’s Sustainable Growth Strategy, which seeks to grow businesses, jobs and the numbers of people living in the Steinbach area.
Climate Change is a matter making it to the agenda more and more with every weather record that is broken, and every heavy rainfall. Steinbach was badly affected by summer storms last year, but the Province’s flood protection plans should help to reduce those in the future. These plans include preserving wetlands (not many left in the Red River Valley) and a simplification of drainage regulations so that maintenance works can be done when they are needed. The Surface Water Management Strategy will encourage a principle of keeping water on the land, to slow the flow, through the creation of schemes mostly on-farm, and Crown Lands to store water upstream which will reduce the inundation of populated areas. But Steinbach will need to do it’s bit too – the summer storms showed a lack of storage capacity in the City when it was needed. Let’s hope that the City Planners have some good ideas for future storms if they want to keep Steinbach businesses running.
As I said, this is just a taste of what is likely to be coming our way this year. If these issues interest you, why not check out the City Council meeting Agendas and lobby your local Councillor to represent your point of view. Or check out our website www.setimanitoba.org