June 14, 2013

Innovation, Energy and Mines Minister Dave Chomiak, minister responsible for Manitoba Hydro, and Scott Thomson (President & CEO) announced yesterday that residents of the Peguis and Fisher River First Nations will be converting 100 homes in their communities from electric heat to geothermal heating and cooling this summer.

The project is led by Aki Energy Inc., a social enterprise created by the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, BUILD Inc., Green Communities Canada and the Manitoba Geothermal Energy Alliance. Thirty members of the two communities have been trained to do the conversions, creating both jobs and new business opportunities for band-owned construction companies.

Aki Energy, an Ojibway word for earth, spearheaded the project at Fisher River and Peguis First Nations. With the success of this project, Aki Energy plans to expand this program provincewide and will partner with four more Manitoba First Nations next year. 

“This project is the first of its kind in the world. We’re creating green jobs, helping the environment and saving people money all at the same time,” said Premier Greg Selinger. “Using Hydro’s innovative Pay‑as‑You‑Save financing, this program can be a template for other communities across the province.”

Manitoba Hydro will finance the upfront capital costs through the Pay-as-You-Save (PAYS) program and the First Nations will repay those costs using the monthly utility bill savings. Savings are expected to exceed $90 a month per home from day one.  Hydro will provide additional program costs based on the value of the electricity saved on the export market. Because it captures the differential temperature of the earth, geothermal is about three times more efficient than electric heating or cooling.

“Manitoba Hydro is pleased to be working with our community partners on this exciting initiative, said Scott Thomson. “With a growing population and growing economy, our capacity to supply Manitoba’s power needs will run out about 2022. That’s less than a decade. Manitoba Hydro has an obligation to its customers to prepare for the energy needs that are fast approaching. Doing nothing is not an option.”

Clifford Maynes, executive director, Green Communities Canada, commended Manitoba Hydro for developing PAYS financing. 

“This innovative financing tool has enabled these First Nations communities to overcome upfront barriers and unlock valuable long-term energy savings. This is a model that should be repeated again and again across the country.”

Fisher River Chief David Crate said this project “proves that job creation and environmental enhancement can go hand in hand.”

“We’ve long wanted to see jobs created by lowering heating bills in our community,” said Peguis Chief Glenn Hudson. “Hydro’s PAYS financing allows us to finally do it without having to divert funds from other initiatives.”

“Geothermal is a perfect fit for these communities,” said Darcy Wood, executive director, Aki Energy. “First Nations have higher priorities than spending money on utility bills and all need more employment. Aki plans to roll this approach out in First Nation communities across the province.”

Chomiak noted that increasing geothermal throughout rural Manitoba is one of the goals of Manitoba’s Clean Energy Strategy, which is available at: www.manitoba.ca/iem/energy/pdfs/energy_strategy_2012.pdf.

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June 13, 2013

100 Homes to be Converted to Geothermal Heating, Cooling This Summer using Pay-as-You-Save Financing

Innovation, Energy and Mines Minister Dave Chomiak, minister responsible for Manitoba Hydro, and Manitoba Hydro president Scott Thomson announced today that residents of the Peguis and Fisher River First Nations will be converting 100 homes in their communities from electric heat to geothermal heating and cooling this summer.

The project is led by Aki Energy Inc., a social enterprise created by the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, BUILD Inc., Green Communities Canada and the Manitoba Geothermal Energy Alliance.  Thirty members of the two communities have been trained to do the conversions, creating both jobs and new business opportunities for band-owned construction companies.

Aki Energy, an Ojibway word for earth, spearheaded the project at Fisher River and Peguis First Nations.  With the success of this project, Aki Energy plans to expand this program provincewide and will partner with four more Manitoba First Nations next year. 

"This project is the first of its kind in the world.  We're creating green jobs, helping the environment and saving people money all at the same time," said Premier Greg Selinger.  "Using Hydro's innovative Pay‑as‑You‑Save financing, this program can be a template for other communities across the province."

Manitoba Hydro will finance the upfront capital costs through the Pay-as-You-Save (PAYS) program and the First Nations will repay those costs using the monthly utility bill savings.  Savings are expected to exceed $90 a month per home from day one.  Hydro will provide additional program costs based on the value of the electricity saved on the export market.  Because it captures the differential temperature of the earth, geothermal is about three times more efficient than electric heating or cooling.

"Manitoba Hydro is pleased to be working with our community partners on this exciting initiative, said president and CEO Scott Thomson.  "With a growing population and growing economy, our capacity to supply Manitoba's power needs will run out about 2022. That's less than a decade. Manitoba Hydro has an obligation to its customers to prepare for the energy needs that are fast approaching. Doing nothing is not an option."

Clifford Maynes, executive director, Green Communities Canada, commended Manitoba Hydro for developing PAYS financing. 

"This innovative financing tool has enabled these First Nations communities to overcome upfront barriers and unlock valuable long-term energy savings.  This is a model that should be repeated again and again across the country."

Fisher River Chief David Crate said this project "proves that job creation and environmental enhancement can go hand in hand."

"We've long wanted to see jobs created by lowering heating bills in our community," said Peguis Chief Glenn Hudson.  "Hydro's PAYS financing allows us to finally do it without having to divert funds from other initiatives."

"Geothermal is a perfect fit for these communities," said Darcy Wood, executive director, Aki Energy.  "First Nations have higher priorities than spending money on utility bills and all need more employment.  Aki plans to roll this approach out in First Nation communities across the province."

Chomiak noted that increasing geothermal throughout rural Manitoba is one of the goals of Manitoba's Clean Energy Strategy, which is available at: www.manitoba.ca/iem/energy/pdfs/energy_strategy_2012.pdf.

By: Bruce Owen

WAYNE GLOWACKI/WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Enlarge Image

Gord Mackintosh (right) and Rick Gamble are putting together the Lake Friendly Alliance to help save Lake Winnipeg. Photo Store

The Selinger government wants two more provinces and three U.S. states to get involved in cleaning up Lake Winnipeg.

The goal is to reduce the nutrient loading on Lake Winnipeg by 50 per cent -- a timeline has not yet been set -- in an effort to deal with the toxic algae blooms that appear each summer and the long-term damage they create to the health of the lake.

Gimli is in the running to become a Blue Flag Beach.

The international Blue Flag eco-certification is awarded to beaches and marinas around the globe that demonstrate recognized standards in water quality, environmental management, environmental education, safety and services.

If approved, Gimli would join West Grand Beach at Grand Beach Provincial Park, which was awarded Blue Flag status last year.

The Blue Flag program has been in Canada since 2005.

The award is administered in Canada by Environmental Defence and is managed internationally by the Foundation for Environmental Education.

Conservation and Water Stewardship Minister Gord Mackintosh said to do that two things have to happen: Manitoba, Ontario and Alberta, along with Minnesota, South Dakota and North Dakota, have to start working together to clean up waterways draining into lake Winnipeg; and the approximately 40 groups currently working to fix the lake have to start working more closely together.

Mackintosh calls it the Lake Friendly Accord and Stewards Alliance.

-- Conservation and Water Stewardship Minister Gord Mackintosh

"Clearly, we have got to take efforts to save our great lake to a new level," Mackintosh said.

Mackintosh said half the phosphorus and nitrogen going into the lake comes from sources outside the province. Those nutrients cause the huge algae blooms that have increased 300 to 500 per cent on Lake Winnipeg in the past century. Algae dies and consumes oxygen in the process that aquatic life, such as fish, need to survive -- a condition called eutrophication. Flooding and climate change are partly to blame, but so is the use of agriculture fertilizer, poor wastewater treatment, land clearing and deforestation.

The risk to Canada's sixth-biggest lake earned it the distinction of being named Threatened Lake of the Year 2013 by a German environmental group earlier this year, a distinction Mackintosh said the province wants to shed.

"This is a call to be lake-friendly no matter where you live in the basin," Mackintosh said. "Because if you're lake-friendly far upstream it will have a positive effect on our great lake."

Rick Gamble, chair of the South Basin Mayors and Reeves, said the new alliance initiative will bring more coordination and focus to fixing the lake.

"We just feel the problem is getting to the scale where we'd be better off working together and putting more energy into it," Gamble said, adding reaching outside the province also brings more credibility to efforts already underway in Manitoba.

Mackintosh has already had a discussion with Saskatchewan Environment Minister Ken Cheveldayoff.

First, however, is convincing more Manitobans to get involved in cleaning up the lake, he said.

That will involve getting representatives from about 40 organizations to meet later this month to begin to put together the Lake Friendly Alliance. The alliance will help the province draft the accord and discuss nutrient-reduction objectives with a goal to have it signed by 2020.

Mackintosh said a joint accord with the other provinces and states can succeed if it demonstrates the benefits to the other jurisdictions' waterways.

He also said a more comprehensive alliance, including municipal participation, would also help leverage more than $1 billion in provincial and federal funding to go in part to waste-water treatment. Under the new federal Building Canada Fund alone, more than $100 million could be made available for sewage-treatment upgrades in 16 communities in the Lake Winnipeg watershed including Selkirk, St. Andrews, Winnipeg Beach, Dunnottar and West St. Paul.

The province has already committed to fund one-third of the cost of the upgrades to Winnipeg sewage treatment plants, estimated at $235 million, and provide further funding for new sewer treatment upgrades in provincial parks in the lake's basin.

bruce.owen@freepress.mb.ca

Business

By: Martin Cash

Posted: 06/7/2013 1:00 AM

For the first time, Manitoba's oil industry has bragging rights over its resource cousins in the mining sector.

In 2012, oil-industry revenue slightly nudged mineral-production receipts for top spot in Manitoba --$1.51 billion in oil and about $1.4 billion in nickel, copper, gold zinc and the rest of the underground miners' production.

Last year, 18.5 million barrels of oil were produced. That's 23 per cent more than 2011 and it has been growing by more than 20 per cent annually since 2005.

John Fox, assistant deputy minister of mineral resources for the Department of Innovation Energy and Mines, said there is no reason to think production won't increase again this year.

"At 222 wells drilled already this year, we're slightly ahead of last year," Fox said. "We anticipate a similar 10 to 20 per cent increase in production in Manitoba in 2013. It's not dying down."

Manitoba's oil production is restricted to the southwest corner of the province along the northeastern flank of the Williston Basin that extends into Saskatchewan, North Dakota, South Dakota and Montana.

Although geographic coverage is small in Manitoba compared with those jurisdictions, the growth in Manitoba's oil production since 2005 has been far greater than the conventional oil production in Saskatchewan and Alberta.

Compared to a 257 per cent increase in Manitoba since 2005, Alberta's conventional oil production has increased by just nine per cent in that time period (that doesn't include huge production increases in the oilsands). In Saskatchewan, oil production was up about 42.5 per cent during that period.

Both those provinces outstrip Manitoba in sheer volume of production -- Alberta pumps eight times more oil than Manitoba (not including oilsands) and Saskatchewan's production is four times greater -- but Manitoba's industry has taken off during the past several years.

The introduction of horizontal drilling and fracturing has been a boon here. Virtually all oil wells in Manitoba now use "fracking" -- the technique of shooting water then "fracking" a sand mixture deep into the shale rock to keep the cracks open to extract the oil.

The tiny oilpatch in Manitoba has caught the eye of industry observers.

Last year, the Fraser Institute's global petroleum survey ranked Manitoba as the best place in Canada for oil and gas investment and fifth-best in the world behind Oklahoma, Mississippi, Texas and North Dakota. The Netherlands, New Mexico, Kansas, Denmark and West Virginia rounded out the Fraser Institute's Top 10.

It was ranked just behind Saskatchewan the year before.

"The Prairies offer the clearest, most consistent, and most competitive policies for oil and gas investment in Canada," said Gerry Angevine, co-author of the survey. Fox said industry recognition is a credit to the petroleum branch's willingness to work with industry and a fiscal regime that is competitive with Alberta and Saskatchewan.

The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers predicts Canadian crude-oil production will more than double to 6.7 million barrels per day by 2030 from 3.2 million barrels per day in 2012. That includes oilsands production of 5.2 million barrels per day by 2030, up from 1.8 million barrels per day in 2012.

CAPP forecasts Manitoba's production to peak this year and remain at 50,000 barrels per day for the next three years, but start dropping off at a low single-digit rate for the next 15 years.

Fox agreed that during the medium term, production will level out, then begin to decline as CAPP forecasts.

But he believes 2013 will mark another production record in Manitoba.

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition June 7, 2013

Tapping the Opportunity in the Bakken

Tapping Opportunity in the Bakken is a one-day "how to" seminar designed specifically to help Manitoba companies launch successful business efforts in the region.  Presented in Manitoba only on June 26th, you can expect a dept of actionable intelligence you won't find elsewhere.

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

11:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m

Radisson Winnipeg Downtown

288 Portage Ave. Winnipeg, MB  

Details here

Time is running out! Let the Government of Canada know what you think about its Federal Sustainable Development Strategy before June 14. Public consultations are currently underway, following the release of the 2012 Progress Report on the first Federal Sustainable Development Strategy for 2010-13, and the draft of the second Strategy covering the 2013-16 period. These are two important milestones in the federal government's sustainable development efforts in accordance with the Federal Sustainable Development Act. The public consultations process provides Canadians with a key opportunity to comment on the Government's progress made on sustainable development, and its goals and objectives over the coming years. We encourage you to review the draft Strategy by visiting http://www.ec.gc.ca/dd-sd, and submit your comments to sdo-bdd@ec.gc.ca or the following address by June 14, 2013:

Sustainable Development Office Environment Canada 10 Wellington Street, 4th Floor Gatineau QC  K1A 0H3

Your input will be strictly confidential in accordance with the terms of our privacy policy. A summary of input received will be posted on Environment Canada's website following the completion of the review period. We look forward to your input and trust that your comments will contribute to the continuous improvement of the Federal Sustainable Development Strategy.