2023-05-11

 Published in The Selkirk Record

11 May 2023

© Calvin J. Brown 2023

-----------------------

Last year, the United Nations Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, said about our changing climate: “We are headed for a global catastrophe.” His comment should make us clearly recognize our current climate emergency. Then we should focus our attention on what can be done.

The City of Selkirk has done this and is providing extraordinary leadership with its efforts to deal with climate change. We urgently need our provincial government to follow that lead. In the provincial budget released a few weeks ago, you’ll be greatly challenged to find mention of anything related to climate change. Our government seems to be ignoring the issue entirely. The future of Manitoba’s citizens—particularly the youngest ones—depends on that quickly changing.

On April 20, Manitoba’s Climate Action Team released the latest report in their Road to Resilience series (https://climateactionmb.ca/road2resilience/). That team is a coalition of organizations that is working diligently to help our province. Their reports show us, and particularly our provincial government, a thoughtful and practical way through the climate crisis. However, they require our leaders to exhibit the wisdom and will to do what’s required. 

We need our provincial politicians to begin addressing the climate emergency. A great approach would be to engage with the Climate Action Team and to leverage their excellent research and realistic ideas. The Road to Resilience reports provide important facts and sage advice that deserve attention.

To avoid the worst climate-change effects and to prepare for those that are already inevitable, we must be acting now. Manitoba has much to do. Having our provincial government ignore the problem does not help. 

Submitted by
Calvin Brown
R.M. of St. Andrews