Reality Check

Manitoba released Tomorrow Now: Manitoba's Green Plan June 15, 2012. The government says Tomorrow Now is an eight-year strategic plan for protecting the environment while ensuring a prosperous and environmentally conscious economy. Tomorrow Now is not a single plan, but instead calls for the development of many new environmental plans, strategies, laws and regulations over the next eight years.

Manitoba Wildlands has identified at least 13 changes to laws or regulations called for in Tomorrow Now, including:

1. Replacement of The Sustainable Development Act with new legislation (The Green Prosperity Act);
2. Regulations requiring mandatory GHG emissions reporting;
3. An expanded regulatory system for controlling, collecting, or using GHG emissions from landfills in Manitoba;
4. A new regulatory system establishing several regulation-based classes of drainage and water retention under The Water Rights Act;
5. Consideration of legislative changes to further green infrastructure and sustainable communities;
6. A new Nutrient Management Tax Credit;
7. Modernization of groundwater and water well legislation;
8. Amendments to The Contaminated Sites Remediation Act to designate potentially harmful contaminated sites;
9. Amendments to environmental legislation to include innovative compliance tools and protocols to make environmental assessment more effective;
10. Legislation to prohibit certain materials from entering landfills;
11. Stronger species at risk legislation;
12. The addition of up to 15 more parks, ecological reserves, wildlife management areas or other protected areas over the next eight years; and,
13. Changes in laws and regulations to allow "sustainable mining in parks."

In addition to calling for new laws and regulations, Tomorrow Now also calls for the development of up to 16 new environmental plans or strategies over the next eight years (see Manitoba Wildlands Reality Check #36).

• Tomorrow Now: Manitoba's Green Plan
• The Green Prosperity Act Consultation – Comments Due February 28, 2013
• Reality Check #36: How Many Strategies and Plans Does Tomorrow Now: Manitoba's Green Plan need?
• July 6, 2012 Manitoba Wildlands coverage