Environmental hits and misses at city hall

St. Vital

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 03/01/2024 (736 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

As we complete the first year at City Hall under Mayor Scott Gillingham I have been thinking about Winnipeg progress on various environmental initiatives. I do not consider myself a great environmentalist, but I have had the privilege of chairing the water, waste and environment committee for six of the last eight years. We took some steps forward in 2023 but missed out on at least one opportunity.

For the first time, city council voted in 2023 to move forward with a curbside compost pick-up program. The details are to be decided in spring 2024 , and we may not be at your curb for several years as facilities are built, but it’s still a big step toward reducing greenhouse gas emissions. A lesser-noted step was the move to convert methane from Brady landfill into natural gas — and I hope for an announcement on this in early 2024.

City hall also took a step forward to study geothermal heating options in at least one city arena. I plan to push for more work on building retrofits and geothermal heating when I begin work as chair of the city’s new climate action & resilience committee in early 2024.

We are increasing our budget by 50 per cent (or $60 million over four years) to reduce sewage spills into rivers, the billion-dollar “CSO” (chronic sewer overflow) problem. Kudos to Mayor Gillingham for backing this increased funding while finance chair, and now as mayor.

As for our miss, I was disappointed that Winnipeg Transit staff rather quickly dismissed my motion to study a light-rail line for St. Mary’s Road / Main Street. There is a lot of federal funding out there for commuter rail projects, and many other cities have taken advantage of it. I included this idea in my 2022 re-election platform, and I want to keep making the case.