Social Studies: Contemporary Geographic Issues
Kindness crops up in harvest for hungry
4 minute read Preview Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2024The economic opportunity beneath our feet
5 minute read Monday, May. 13, 2024Beneath Manitobans’ feet lies a treasure trove, ripe and ready for exploration.
Fossil fuel fouls clean-grid future
12 minute read Preview Thursday, Mar. 28, 2024Fuel pipeline to Winnipeg shut down
1 minute read Sunday, Mar. 17, 2024A pipeline that supplies fuel to Winnipeg has been temporarily shut down, the Manitoba government announced Sunday night.
In a news release, the province said it is working with other suppliers to bring fuel into Manitoba after Imperial Oil temporarily shut down its pipeline between Gretna and Winnipeg.
“Industry partners are leveraging extensive supply networks and actively working to minimize customer and end-user impacts by maintaining Manitoba’s fuel supply through other means including rail and truck,” the release said.
There was no indication how the shutdown would impact fuel supply in Winnipeg or across the province.
The path to end park logging
5 minute read Saturday, Dec. 23, 2023LOGGING in Duck Mountain Provincial Park is a thorny embarrassment new Premier Wab Kinew inherited from successive governments. But he must finish what the previous NDP governments started and permanently end commercial logging in Manitoba parks.
There’s only one proper pathway to solve this shameful chapter in our province and it involves reconciliation, decolonizing parks and acting on our global commitment to end the biodiversity crisis. Solving several issues at once is the leadership we need.
The current Louisiana-Pacific licence to log Duck Mountain Provincial Park expires on Dec. 31, 2023. The new government will absolutely renew it given it’s been mere weeks since the election. While this may not have been enough time to resolve this colossally contentious catastrophe, the clock is now ticking and we demand a solution.
The Progressive Conservatives caused this problem in the 1990s by using an overestimate of wood in the Duck Mountain region as justification to give Louisiana-Pacific reign over Duck Mountain Provincial Park. Manitoba’s Clean Environment Commission had just recommended that “commercial forestry activity in all provincial parks should be phased out,” but this was ignored. The NDP fixed most of the problems in 2009 when they banned logging in 12 of 13 parks, yet left Duck Mountain to the logging companies.
Going underground, large-scale
4 minute read Thursday, Jul. 13, 2023It is never easy to change. Natural gas has been connected to most homes in Winnipeg since the 1950’s and ‘60s and produces almost 3.7 million tonnes of CO2 annually. Some gas lines have been in the ground for more than 60 years. Their life expectancy is about 75-85 years. Gas companies in Canada spend close to $3 billion annually to renew and expand the pipelines.
This is the problem. The cost of building gas lines is amortized over the expected life of the pipeline. Basically, the infrastructure is paid with a very long-term mortgage. That has kept the price of delivering gas to our buildings low. If gas lines are being renewed and extended, the term of the mortgage is 80 years. If we want to move away from gas to heat our homes, how is the utility going to pay the mortgage when no one is buying gas?
The alternative? Electricity. We can use electricity directly (think toaster elements), use it to extract heat from the air outside, or use it to extract heat from the earth.
Electric heat is more efficient than gas, but at today’s electric and gas rates, it’s about three times as expensive to heat your home with electric heat.
Cloud seeding catching on amid Rocky Mountain drought
8 minute read Preview Monday, Oct. 6, 2025Manitoba hog industry continues to grow
4 minute read Preview Friday, Apr. 14, 2023Leaving the vulnerable to struggle in the cold shames this city
6 minute read Preview Thursday, Dec. 1, 2022Broader perception of downtown seems mired in time
7 minute read Preview Friday, Oct. 14, 2022Save our Seine ensures long-neglected river preserved for generations to come
6 minute read Preview Saturday, Jul. 16, 2022Reserve files suit over logging in western Manitoba
2 minute read Preview Wednesday, Feb. 23, 2022First Nation seeking review into logging practices
3 minute read Preview Monday, Oct. 6, 2025Move over canola, here come soybeans
4 minute read Sunday, May. 25, 2003CARMAN -- Which of these sights doesn't belong along Manitoba highways?
a) golden wheat
b) shimmering blue flax
c) canary yellow canola