First Nations working with Manitoba’s Climate Action Team

By Dr. Durdana Islam, CAT Program Manager, and Beth McKechnie

Manitoba’s Climate Action Team (CAT) is a coalition of five environmental organizations working to create a roadmap to climate resilience in our province. Coalition members include: Climate Change Connection, Wilderness Committee – Manitoba Office, Green Action Centre, Manitoba Energy Justice Coalition and the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives – Manitoba Office.

With funding from Environment and Climate Change Canada and The Winnipeg Foundation, CAT has hosted educational events and produced the Road to Resilience, a comprehensive roadmap to meeting the emissions targets laid out in the IPCC 1.5 degrees C Report.

Over the past year, CAT provided information sessions for 10 communities in Manitoba including five settler communities and five Indigenous communities. The team collaborated with the Centre for Indigenous Environmental Resources (CIER) to arrange the climate action workshops in five Indigenous communities. These communities included: Sioux Valley Dakota Nation, Little Black River First Nation, Sandy Bay First Nation, Pinaymootang First Nation, and Swan Lake First Nation. Community champions in each community helped make this possible.

Community members from all walks of life attended these workshops. Elders, community leaders, youth, high school students, and people from a variety of backgrounds joined us to make each workshop successful.

After a presentation on climate change and climate actions, the participants moved into small groups to talk about these four topics:

Transportation: How can we move ourselves and goods without burning fossil fuel?
Agriculture: How can we feed ourselves without fossil fuel?
Building: How can we heat and cool our buildings without the use of fossil fuel?
Energy: How can we use energy from clean sources?

This year and next, the Climate Action Team will be working closely with community champions in Sioux Valley Dakota Nation and Swan Lake First Nation to hold more workshops for community members and to help develop their community climate action plan.