Regina academic says Sask. climate plan could be improved

A Regina professor and researcher is casting a critical eye on the first progress report on the Saskatchewan government’s Prairie Resilience climate plan.

The provincial government has been promoting the plan for over a year. Last week, it released a report showing where things stand on 25 benchmark measures.

Many of the measures deal with infrastructure and plans to mitigate the effects of climate change, such as making sure communities have flood plans.

Dave Sauchyn said the measures in the plan are appropriate, but there are some that are missing. Sauchyn is a professor at the University of Regina, and the director of the Prairie Adaptation Research Collaborative at the university.

He suggested requiring plans for drought, as well as flooding, adding in a focus on wetlands and drainage, and looking at water as natural capital.

He pointed out there are no measures for behaviour — things like how many people are taking the bus or walking instead of driving their own vehicle. But, Sauchyn said those things are harder to measure and, like the carbon tax, are less popular with the voting base.

Sauchyn said behavioural change is needed to really combat climate change. As with many critics of Prairie Resilience, Sauchyn said the plan won’t do nearly enough.

When it comes to emissions, Sauchyn said the plan measures them in relation to GDP, as opposed to total emissions.

“They could say, ‘well we are reducing greenhouse gases because the amount of greenhouse gas relative to the GDP and the economy is stable or going down.’ But, as long as the economy grows you can keep increasing greenhouses gases and achieve that benchmark,” he explained.

Sauchyn said tying emissions to GDP amounts to gaming the numbers, but suggested any government with a resource-based economy would likely do the same.

Speaking to media when the report was released, Environment Minister Dustin Duncan said Saskatchewan only puts out a small fraction of the greenhouse gases in the world, so even if the province’s emissions were to fall to zero, climate change would continue. That was Duncan’s explanation as to why the province was also moving to mitigate the effects of climate change on the province.

Sauchyn said that logic is a little bit ironic.

“Okay, if that’s the case, then why are you advocating reducing greenhouse gases to improve the resilience of Saskatchewan?”

He pointed out that while Saskatchewan does only produce a small portion of total emissions, the province’s emissions per capita are second-highest in the world.

“Per person, we’re off the scale.”

Overall, Sauchyn said the plan is reasonable, but could always be better. He added that Prairie Resilience is better than nothing.

“At least Saskatchewan has a plan, some jurisdictions don’t.”

As for the benchmarks in Prairie Resilience, Sauchyn said the province is just getting started in achieving the targets, some things — like SaskPower getting to half of power generated from renewable resources — are still a long way off.

Governments provide funding

The province, Natural Resources Canada and the Saskatchewan Water Security Agency (WSA) have announced $1.3 million in funding and support to help farmers and communities deal with climate change.

The money is to fund three projects.

The first will allow the WSA and its partners to stage workshops for up to 2,500 agricultural producers over the next two years. The workshops will educate farmers about the Saskatchewan Agricultural Water Management Strategy and how the design of their agricultural drainage projects can help address climate change.

The second project is to assist the WSA in increasing its training program for Qualified Persons, who assist landowners with the design of their drainage projects.

The third aim of the funding is to help communities develop drought response plans. The hope is that at-risk communities can become resistant to droughts by considering existing hazards.