Manitoba lagging on energy efficiency

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 25/01/2021 (1843 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

According to Efficiency Canada’s new report card, Manitoba is below the national average when it comes to energy efficiency. 

In November, Efficiency Canada released its second annual scorecard that evaluates the progress made in energy efficiency for each Canadian province and territory.  This year, Manitoba ranked 6^th with 29 points out of 100, slipping from 5^th place last year and well behind the leader, British Columbia, with 58 points. 

Efficiency Canada is the national voice for an energy efficient economy. The scorecard provides an objective and third-party framework to help provinces understand their energy efficiency performance in a national context. In addition, it illustrates creative programs and ideas that are working in other jurisdictions – and best practices that can be replicated across the country to improve performance. 

In the 1990s Manitoba was one of the first jurisdictions to adopt efficiency measures  and was a leader in North America in setting a progressive new direction for sustainable energy policies and practices. However, Manitoba has since fallen well behind other provinces and many American states and the scorecard suggests that Manitoba policymakers cannot rest on their past achievements. 

Manitoba continues to be respected for a number of programs and policies. It is still one of the top provinces in terms of funding for energy efficiency programs, ranks highly on program spending per person and on low-income programs (even with a reduction in funding last year). Manitoba also generates high praise for having the only legislated energy savings mandate in Canada. Other potential good news is that in April 2020, the province transferred administration of energy efficiency programs from Manitoba Hydro to Efficiency Manitoba, a new crown corporation mandated to meet Manitoba’s efficiency targets.  

Nonetheless, Manitoba has dropped from its leadership position.  Central author of the scorecard James Gaede says that,  “compared to the Efficiency Manitoba targets, leading American states and Canadian provinces are achieving savings about three times higher for electricity, and two times higher for natural gas.” Manitoba is underperforming on the fundamental metric of electrical energy saving as a percentage of domestic sales. 

The Manitoba Energy Savings Act legislates that the province save 1.5% of electrical energy each year – 0.7% on programs and 0.8% on standards and codes – but we saved only 0.44% in 2019. Nova Scotia saved 1.2% and Ontario saved 1.0%. Across North America, Manitoba ranked 28^th . On the codes and standards metric, Manitoba has the least progressive Building Code standards in Canada and is alone in the use of the outdated 2011 Building Code. A new National Energy Code for Buildings will soon be released, and Manitoba should adopt this as soon as possible. We could also do as British Columbia has done and adopt a “step code”, a framework for defining a gradual transformation of building codes over a number of years with the goal of achieving net-zero targets.  

Other provinces are doing much better in switching from natural gas to electricity as a heating source. Manitoba has been slow to embrace switching from gas to electricity due to distribution and system capacity issues, and perhaps because increased electricity use for heating could reduce the amount of electricity we can export. However there is no path to meeting our 2050 climate targets without a transition away from natural gas heating.

Manitoba currently ranks the second-lowest province in terms of  investment in electric vehicle infrastructure and charging stations per kilometre. With our abundance of hydroelectric green power, Manitoba is well-positioned to make a green vehicle transition. 

The scale of change required to green Manitoba’s economy is immense, but the successes achieved in other provinces as well as the criteria presented in the scorecard make explicit the incremental steps we need to take to get there. The benefits to the economy, and to the environment, are significant and can no longer be ignored.

Read the full report: https://www.scorecard.efficiencycanada.org/2020

Stephanie Zubriski is board chair and Laura Tyler is executive director of Sustainable Building Manitoba.