The federal gov’t hands out money for climate action

On Monday January 20th, federal environment minister Jonathan Wilkinson presented two groups with $100,000 each. That funding came from Ottawa’s $3 million a year Climate Action Fund, which took submissions between late April and mid-May last year, with funding decisions made in the summer.

The announcement follows a recent trend of the federal government bypassing provincial governments to direct climate change cash directly to recipients of Ottawa’s choosing. Today, those recipients were Assiniboine Park Conservancy and Eco-West Canada.

Eco-West Canada will use the money to help small and medium-sized businesses in five municipalities across Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta to better deal with the effects of climate change. (Assiniboine Park Conservancy will work with youth to identify barriers to climate action and build a social media campaign to address them.)

Read the full story here:

https://www.nationalobserver.com/2020/01/21/news/liberals-fight-climate-battle-two-fronts-manitoba

In support of the Made-in-Manitoba Climate and Green Plan, Eco-West Canada is collaborating with the Manitoba government in order to develop an appliance stewardship program to increase recycling of household appliances, commonly referred to as ‘white goods.’

White goods are products that contain refrigerants such as freon or other ozone-depleting substances, and these include appliances such as refrigerators, freezers, air conditioners and dehumidifiers.   This initiative will further reduce the province’s greenhouse-gas emissions, which will help Manitoba meet its emission reduction targets.

“Every household in the province has white goods, whether it be a fridge, a freezer, a dehumidifier, a water cooler or an air-conditioning unit, and the improper disposal of these items leads to the release of more unwanted greenhouse gases and a negative impact on the environment,” said Dany Robidoux, executive director of Eco-West Canada.  “We are proud to be working with the province to put in place a ‘White Goods Stewardship and Recycling Program’ that will help grow the zero-waste economy, reduce the amount of stockpiled white goods at landfills, and create jobs for the benefit of all Manitobans.”

Manitoba has indicated that it plans to modernize the regulatory framework for waste diversion and recycling to manage end-of-life white goods by the end of 2021. The province will build on the existing network of provincial recycling programs and work with industry, municipalities and other stewardship organizations to develop a plan to introduce industry-funded stewardship programs for all corded appliances by 2022.