Search Climate Insights Directory

The document describes zebra mussels as filter-feeding molluscs from Eastern Europe that attach to hard surfaces in high densities. It details their spread from the Great Lakes into Manitoba, likely via the Red River or overland transport, and identifies their presence in the Red River and Lake Winnipeg. Ecological risks include the depletion of algae affecting fish and insect populations, as well as the potential for shoreline algal blooms. The author advises the public to clean equipment moved from Lake Winnipeg to other water bodies and warns of physical injury from sharp shells.

The document outlines the intersection of climate change and public health in Canada, highlighting risks such as extreme heat, wildfires, and food insecurity, particularly in the Arctic and among Indigenous populations. It advocates for a rapid phase-out of coal-powered electricity by 2030, the implementation of a National Active Transport Strategy, and the integration of Health Impact Assessments into federal environmental processes to mitigate health risks and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The briefing emphasizes that strategic management of water retention sites—including engineered wetlands—is essential for Manitoba to mitigate risks from floods, drought, and nutrient loading. It details the importance of controlling retention times, water levels, and biomass harvesting to capture contaminants and support a local bioeconomy. The document highlights successful examples like Pelly’s Lake in Manitoba and North Ottawa in Minnesota, and calls for the use of Light Detection and Ranging data and clear management criteria to ensure the sustainability and effectiveness of these projects.

The document argues that Alberta's cities must move beyond historical climatic patterns to build resilience against more frequent and intense extreme weather events. It emphasizes integrating climate projections into emergency planning, investing in robust and redundant infrastructure, and fostering community resourcefulness through participatory engagement.

The report analyzes diverse resource management models—ranging from sovereign wealth funds in Norway to ecosystem service payments in Costa Rica—to derive a framework for benefit sharing. It emphasizes that successful long-term outcomes require clear leadership, strong legislative frameworks, institutional mechanisms for implementation, and the active inclusion of Indigenous populations in decision-making. The document contrasts successful models, such as Norway's GPFG, with cautionary examples like Alberta's Heritage Savings Trust Fund and Nigeria's oil sector, highlighting the risks of overreliance on non-renewable resources without strategic diversification and robust legal safeguards.

The report advocates for a transition from fragmented, boundary-based planning to an integrated watershed approach in northern Manitoba's Nelson-Churchill River Basin. It identifies critical ecosystem services—including hydroelectricity, mining, and carbon storage—and proposes seven principles for successful management: basin planning, leadership, multi-party approaches, shared decision-making with Indigenous communities, robust monitoring, legislative support, and sustainable funding. The authors recommend establishing a multi-party basin-level organization to coordinate sustainable development and mitigate environmental stresses from resource extraction and climate change.

The document outlines the regulatory landscape of cosmetic pesticides in Canada, comparing 'white list' and 'black list' approaches and evaluating the effectiveness of mandatory bans over voluntary programs. It identifies key gaps in current legislation, such as exceptions for golf courses and lack of retail enforcement, while providing evidence of reduced pesticide concentrations in Ontario water bodies and decreased resident use in Toronto following the implementation of bans.

The report analyzes the landscape of cosmetic pesticide bans in Canada, evaluating the effectiveness of various provincial and municipal regulatory frameworks. It argues that the most protective laws utilize 'white lists' of approved low-risk pesticides, maintain a broad scope of coverage across all landscaping elements, and combine legal prohibitions with robust public education and enforcement. The document highlights significant gaps in jurisdictions like Alberta and British Columbia, while praising the comprehensive approaches of Ontario and Nova Scotia.

The document examines the systemic nature of neonicotinoids and their toxicity to arthropods and vertebrates, linking them to honeybee colony losses in Canada and biodiversity decline in Europe. It highlights the economic importance of pollinators in Ontario and Quebec and argues that the widespread use of these pesticides often provides negligible agricultural benefits while threatening human nutrition and global food security.

The report outlines various in-lake remediation strategies to combat eutrophication in Manitoba's prairie lakes, emphasizing that these treatments should complement efforts to control external nutrient sources. It details three biological methods (biomanipulation, floating treatment wetlands, and macrophyte removal), five physical/engineering methods (hypolimnetic withdrawal, dilution/flushing, hypolimnetic aeration, artificial circulation, and dredging), and three chemical methods (phosphorus inactivation, sediment oxidation, and algicides), providing their benefits, shortfalls, suitable lake conditions, and associated costs.

The document examines how subnational monitoring systems align with the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 231 identified indicators. Using the Province of Manitoba's Sustainable Development and Green Economy Indicators as a case study, the analysis finds that while thematic alignment is relatively strong—with over 20% of provincial indicators aligning with SDGs—there is a significant structural gap in indicator types. Specifically, the provincial sets lack the finance and policy indicators present in the SDGs, focusing instead on state indicators. The authors argue that aligning subnational systems is critical for effective bottom-up accountability and national-level aggregation of SDG progress.

The report evaluates five key regional and federal policies in the Hudson Bay Inland Sea region to determine their ability to support climate adaptation for transportation and ICT infrastructure. While the analyzed policies generally score high on planned and autonomous adaptability—particularly regarding permafrost instability and shipping routes—they lack comprehensive support for emergency response and formal review mechanisms. The analysis emphasizes that remote communities are highly dependent on air and sea infrastructure, making their resilience critical for community well-being.

The document critiques the PMRA's special review of atrazine, claiming it ignores synergistic effects of pesticide mixtures, fails to assess surface water contamination, and uses less protective drinking water standards than necessary. It cites evidence of atrazine's presence in Canadian groundwater and surface water, as well as its links to endocrine disruption in wildlife and various cancers and developmental issues in humans.

The document outlines the health risks associated with cosmetic pesticides and advocates for the City of Calgary to adopt restrictive policies similar to those in other Canadian jurisdictions. It highlights failures in federal oversight by the Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) and cites multiple systematic reviews linking pesticides to cancers, neurological deficits, and reproductive issues, particularly in children. CAPE notes that seven provinces and 180 municipalities have already implemented such bans, with evidence from Toronto and Ontario showing significant reductions in pesticide use and water contamination. An Alberta-specific poll indicated that 62% of residents support phasing out all but the safest pesticides for lawns and gardens.

The 2016 CAPE Scorecard evaluates Canadian provincial bans on cosmetic pesticides, ranking Ontario as the highest providing 'Excellent Protection' with a score of 9. Other provinces such as Nova Scotia and Manitoba are rated as 'Good Protection', while Quebec provides 'Some Protection'. Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, and Newfoundland & Labrador are rated as providing 'Little Protection', and Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia are listed as providing 'No Protection'.

The brochure describes 'Smart-Sourced Fuel Products' as eco-friendly biomass blends created from agricultural residues, wetland plants, grassland plants, and forestry residues. These materials can be processed into pellets, briquettes, cubes, biochar, biogas, and fuel logs for residential, industrial, and commercial heating. The document highlights environmental benefits, such as the capture of phosphorus and nitrogen from cattails to protect Lake Winnipeg, and economic advantages for landowners and municipalities. It notes that Manitoba has an estimated 3 to 5 million tonnes of available biomass annually, plus 3 million tonnes of cattail. Replacing all coal use in Manitoba with biomass is estimated to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 200,000 tonnes.

The document describes 'smart-sourced fuels' as ecological heating products made from local agricultural residues, wetland plants, and forestry waste. It highlights the environmental and economic benefits of these fuels in Manitoba, specifically noting the potential of cattails (quenouilles) as a sustainable biomass source. The text provides data on biomass availability around Winnipeg and Brandon and argues that replacing coal with biomass could significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the province.

The report examines the fragmentation of watershed data collection in Canada, where varying methodologies across municipal, provincial, and international borders hinder a coherent understanding of watershed health. Through webinars and workshops conducted by the Canadian Sustainability Indicators Network (CSIN) in 2014–2015, the report identifies key obstacles such as imbalanced institutional capacities and the lack of standardized guidance for indicator selection. It provides recommendations for improving indicator frameworks, including the integration of social and economic data, the use of metadata to enhance comparability, and the adoption of staggered reporting to make information more digestible. The document also notes a tension between the desire for national consistency and the risk of using a 'least common denominator' approach that may sacrifice local data resolution.

The report evaluates a wide array of in-lake remediation techniques to combat eutrophication, emphasizing that these methods are generally only effective if external nutrient loads are simultaneously reduced. It categorizes treatments into biological engineering (e.g., biomanipulation, floating wetlands), physical engineering (e.g., hypolimnetic withdrawal, dredging, artificial circulation), and chemical applications (e.g., alum, Phoslock, algicides). The document provides detailed case studies from North America and Europe, analyzing the effectiveness, longevity, and costs of each method, while highlighting the critical role of internal phosphorus loading in delaying lake recovery.

The report details a bottom-up consultation process in Manitoba involving nine group sessions and 67 bilateral meetings between October 2013 and January 2015. It identifies the province's unique emissions profile, dominated by transportation (38.4%) and agriculture (31.3%), and provides a suite of consensus recommendations across governance, regulatory streamlining, and energy efficiency. A significant portion of the document explores carbon pricing options, including a proposed Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) model and Environmental Fiscal Reform (EFR) such as vehicle registration fee adjustments, to support the transition to a low-carbon economy.