How easy is it to be green in Winnipeg? City too slow on climate emergency fight, say experts, advocates

Our planet is changing. So is our journalism. This story is part of a CBC News initiative entitled Our Changing Planet to show and explain the effects of climate change and what is being done about it.

If you live in Winnipeg, it's not that you can't do anything to cut down your contribution to greenhouse gas emissions — in fact, there are plenty of seemingly simple ways to do it.

But doing your part to help fight climate change will likely mean figuring out your own compost system, shelling out cash to make your home more energy efficient or planning your day around a bus that only comes once every hour.

When it comes down to it, experts and advocates say the city is moving far too slowly to reduce the nearly 7.8 tonnes of greenhouse gases Winnipeg produces per capita every year. And it's not giving its residents — in this case, more than half of Manitoba's population — a real shot to do their part, either.

"The emergency is getting worse and we're still talking instead of doing," said Curt Hull, project director at Climate Change Connection, a non-profit that educates Manitobans and works on solutions to climate change.

With the latest Conference of Parties — or COP26, as this year's iteration is known — underway in Scotland until Nov. 12, cities across the world are asking for more of a role in fighting climate change. 

Many say that role is especially important since cities produce more than 60 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions while covering only two per cent of the Earth's surface, according to the United Nations.

The conference marks the annual meeting of a global decision-making body set up in the early 1990s to implement the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and subsequent climate agreements.

One transit advocate says it's no wonder Winnipeg hasn't shaken its car-centric reputation and convinced people to leave their rides at home.

In fact, the city's efforts to tackle emissions from vehicles — which make up nearly half its output — are heading in the wrong direction, said Brian Pincott, a board member with the advocacy group Functional Transit Winnipeg.

At the beginning of the pandemic last year, Winnipeg announced transit cuts. Just over a month later, a city report recommended dropping parking rates downtown.

"So while you want more people to take the bus, you're making it easier and cheaper for people to take a car," said Pincott, a former Calgary city councillor.

He didn't hold back when comparing Winnipeg's transit system to that of the Alberta city he called home for years.

"It's terrible. And I would not go out of my way to say that Calgary has a great transit system," he said.