Funding policy threatens Manitoba Eco-Network

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 28/12/2019 (2241 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A meme circulates occasionally on social media that goes something like this (apologies to its creator): business executive gets up in the morning and has a glass of clean, uncontaminated water (thanks to some environmentalist in Ottawa); next, breakfast, including fruit that doesn’t contain toxic levels of pesticides (thanks to that hippie grandma out in farm country).

She greets her children, who’ve slept on mattresses free from off-gassing formaldehyde (because that activist kid created such a fuss), and leaves the house, taking the compost to the curb (ever since those millennial tree huggers made the case for lowering methane emissions). Etc., etc.

In my story, this person is grateful for small progressions toward a healthy world, but joining the crowd waiting for the (late again) bus, while morning traffic crawls by, she realizes there’s much more to be done, especially responding to climate change.

She wishes the government would just get on with it. Turns out, she’s not alone. As millions worldwide awaken to the scientific realities of global warming and take their existential worries to the streets, climate change has become one of the most common themes on daily newscasts.

But the truth is that governments (with rare exceptions) don’t just “get on with” the business of environmental protection. Practically no modern environmental law or regulation, be it on air quality, ozone depletion, protected species, pesticides, mining effluent or vehicle emissions would ever have happened without the efforts of some group of concerned citizens/workers/youth/scientists raising awareness of problems they saw and experienced around them.

In Manitoba, as anywhere else, it’s a common pattern: people notice community members getting sick, fewer birds coming to feed, trees dying. They talk, search for answers, lobby, become policy experts in their spare time. Often, they get exhausted. Their kids spend more time at meetings than at play dates.

Sometimes, those people succeed in getting things changed. A new law might be passed. New innovations may replace old, polluting ways. Sometimes.

In the early 1980s, several such groups began meeting in Winnipeg. Under the auspices of the nascent Canadian Environmental Network, they shared stories and strategies, learned from each other and worked together. Eventually, they became the Manitoba Eco-Network, a largely volunteer organization comprised of groups all striving to protect the world around us and the people and animals that live here.

Over time, the Eco-Network grew, compiling resources and expertise to assist the member groups. On shoestring budgets, it published the only comprehensive environmental magazine in Manitoba, held election forums, and helped co-ordinate civil society representatives’ participation in government environmental consultations.

I was privileged to work there until 2011, and was constantly impressed and humbled by the resilience, creativity and effort that groups routinely displayed in the face of massive forestry plays, the exploding hog industry, flooding of vast tracts of the north, and blue-green algae mats choking Lake Winnipeg — amongst other “issues” confronting the province.

The Eco-Network performed a valuable service to those groups, by connecting them to resources, by advocating for their causes, helping them access funding and volunteers, and celebrating their successes. We fielded thousands of public inquiries on every environmental topic imaginable, some of which seem second nature these days, but it’s surprising how many people still wonder where to turn when environmental consciousness arises and they want to take action. By extension, that service is valuable to the whole province.

There have been ups and downs — but by leveraging government funding and building relationships, we developed the EcoCentre above Mountain Equipment Co-op, co-created Manitoba’s multi-stakeholder public education hub on climate change (Climate Change Connection), built a provincewide caucus of groups working on water, a youth environmental activist network, a library and positions for dozens of young people eager to gain hands-on experience, many of whom have gone on to strong successes in their own right.

The organization downsized in the past number of years, but recent accomplishments are still remarkable. Like many small NGOs, the Eco-Network has struggled to remain afloat in the face of rising costs and growing competition for donations and funds. Therefore, it was a huge blow to learn, fully seven months into the fiscal year, that no provincial core funding would be forthcoming for this year. Without it, the Manitoba Eco-Network may be forced to close its doors.

Apparently, new funding approaches based on “measurable outcomes” are coming. But how do you “measure” groups working together to access expertise? Youth gaining life and career skills? Providing information to the public? Building an eco-literate population? Helping shape environmental laws for the betterment of all?

You can’t, really. They are vital but intangible contributions to the public discourse on the future of the planet — sadly, things that governments are not doing themselves. Society gets a terrific deal from environmental non-profits like the Manitoba Eco-Network.

Today, when people’s observations are that the ice is shrinking, there is fall flooding on the Prairies and the Earth is burning, they are needed more than ever.

Anne Lindsey is an independent consultant, community volunteer and former executive director of the Manitoba Eco-Network.