Letters, Jan. 22

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 22/01/2024 (625 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Watershed a gem

Re: Signing first formal step in creating historic conservation area (Jan. 18)

The joined hands of Indigenous leadership and the governments of Manitoba and Canada to protect nature is conservation done right.

Thursday’s tri-party announcement is a key step towards permanently conserving the Seal River Watershed in northern Manitoba as an Indigenous Protected Area.

This is a monumental moment for nature and reconciliation in Canada.

The Seal River Watershed is one of the last great wild spaces on our planet and it’s right here in Manitoba. We are grateful to the members of the Seal River Watershed Alliance for their leadership in protecting this global treasure. CPAWS Manitoba is honoured to have been a partner in the initiative since the initial discussions to protect the watershed began.

The vast beauty of the Seal River Watershed is awe-inspiring, Every stream and river flows freely, as nature intended it. There are no dams. No mines. No hydro lines. There aren’t even any permanent roads. What you find instead is an incredible abundance of wildlife like caribou, birds and polar bears roaming unhindered across boreal forest, wetlands and tundra.

This is what most of the world looked like at the turn of the last century when industrial development was rare, electric lighting was for city folk, and just 15 per cent of the world’s land area was used for agriculture.

At 50,000 square kilometres, the Seal River Watershed constitutes eight per cent of Manitoba. Protecting this area will help Manitoba achieve its goal of expanding protected areas from 11 per cent of the province today to 30 per cent by 2030. This target established by our new provincial government is a critical step toward achieving a healthy balance of conservation and sustainable developments.

The initiative has drawn significant public support both within Manitoba and across Canada. A resounding 83 per cent of Manitobans support the Alliance’s efforts to conserve the Seal River Watershed, according to a Probe Research Poll.

Dozens of Indigenous Protected and Conserved Area initiatives are presently underway across Manitoba and Canada. I salute their leadership and encourage all Canadians to embrace their efforts to ensure a healthy future for people and wildlife.

Ron Thiessen

Executive director, Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS), Manitoba Chapter

It is far too rare that we hear such encouraging news as the recently announced study of, and interim land protection for, a globally important northern Manitoba biodiversity gem — the Seal River Watershed.

After many years of hard work and determination by the First Nations who have for millennia called these vast and remote lands their home, the governments of Canada and Manitoba appear to have taken major steps toward joining them in working to turn this region into an Indigenous Protected and Conserved Area (IPCA).

This comes as great news to the U.S.-based National Audubon Society and its two million members, who have long supported the First Nations in their initiative to protect this amazing part of the world, which is so critical for the birds we love, and for the many other forms of biodiversity it supports.

We hope that Manitobans will join Indigenous Peoples and other conservationists from around the world who have been following this initiative with interest and hope, and both applaud the latest development and encourage all the governments to continue working together to bring this IPCA into existence.

The Seal River Watershed is a truly amazing area in which an estimated 250 bird species can be found. It supports an estimated 10 million breeding birds, and millions more use these vital habitats for refuelling and resting while on their long migratory journeys across our hemisphere. It has a global impact, as birds that nest here travel south to winter in locations across the U.S., Mexico, the Caribbean, and both Central and South America, and even further south in sub-Antarctic waters.

Because the watershed has both coastal and inland ecosystems, as well as both forested and open habitats, it supports a fascinating mix of bird species along with at least 350 non-bird species including 48 mammal species, 26 freshwater fish species and large varieties of insects, plants, trees and fungi.

Audubon was recently honoured to welcome Seal River Watershed Initiative leaders and Youth Guardians as special guests at our recent convention in Colorado, and we are thrilled that the inspiring visions and plans that they shared with us may now be closer to reality.

Dr. Jeff Wells,

Vice-President, Boreal Conservation,

National Audubon Society,

Washington, D.C.

Reform Environment Act

Re: Out-of-date legislation leaves environmental licensing to Manitoba’s politicians (Jan. 17)

I agree with Dan Lett. Since the ’90s organizations have been calling for reform to our environmental policies. Commissions have written reports with advice that would strengthen legislation and truly protect the integrity of Manitoba’s environment and thus our health. The clear and thoughtful recommendations in these reports have been ignored at our peril by the Filmon, Doer, Selinger, Pallister and Stefanson governments.

Yes, the authors of the 2015 Manitoba Law Reform Commission report — Manitoba’s Environmental Assessment and Licensing Regime Under the Environment Act — “could not have anticipated the arrival of Sio Silica in Manitoba” but what they did do was provide us with the tools that would protect us from such projects that push the boundaries of technology. These tools would “result in a more contemporary, certain, transparent and comprehensive framework for environmental assessment and licensing.” Evidence-based analysis designed for real environmental protections, not political back-door sessions.

Reform of our dangerously flawed Environment Act and licensing regime is seriously overdue. Licensing the Sio Silica project would be extremely negligent of our newly elected NDP government.

Tangi Bell

Anola

Incentivize inoculation

Re: 33-hour ER wait highlights health system challenges: St. B patient (Jan. 18)

A couple of solutions to these long wait times would be to give people incentives to get vaccinated because many people will not do the right thing without an incentive, unfortunately. An incentive can be a tax write-off or something similar for each vaccination you get.

Another solution to bring down these long wait times is to slow down the immigration of people until we can train and hire more doctors, nurses and other health professionals, because clearly we do not have enough of these professionals currently to handle the amount of people that are already in Canada, so immigration needs to slow down considerably for Canada to catch up on health care.

Ron Robert

Winnipeg