There is more than half a billion dollars in Manitoba taxpayer’s money at stake and instead of standing by his leadership race promise, the Premier is citing Hudson Bay beluga whales as the new reason for the outrageous spending: Gerrard

 Winnipeg – Manitoba Liberal Leader, Jon Gerrard today challenged Premier Greg Selinger’s December 7 question period comments on the need to remove nitrogen from Winnipeg’s waste water as a means to protect the health of Hudson Bay beluga whales. 

 Gerrard also reminded Selinger that during the NDP leadership race, the former finance minister was quoted as saying if elected Premier, he would revisit the province’s mandate that the City of Winnipeg be required to remove both phosphorus and nitrogen from wastewater.  It is estimated that the province’s demand that nitrogen also be removed, will cost Manitoba taxpayer’s in excess of half a billion dollars over the next 20 years.

 “This government is doing and saying anything to try and avoid the advice and research of hundreds of prominent scientists on the nitrogen removal topic and in doing so, they are sentencing Manitoba taxpayers to more than half a billion dollars of unnecessary provincial spending,” said Gerrard. “There is solid, well-researched science available that indicates that by removing nitrogen from wastewater, we may in fact be doing more damage to Lake Winnipeg by creating the optimum environment for nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria to flourish. So not only are they wasting taxpayer’s money, they are quite possibly doing more harm to Lake Winnipeg with that money!”

 Dr. Greg McCullough from the University of Manitoba’s Centre for Earth Observation Science and Dr. David Schindler from the University of Alberta’s Department of Biological Sciences, agree with Gerrard that the Premier’s claims regarding Hudson Bay belugas are misguided and Dr. McCullough even went so far as to say that some additional nitrogen in the Hudson Bay may in fact help belugas.

 “The Nelson estuary is important beluga habitat probably because it is a relatively productive part of Hudson Bay.  But Hudson Bay is a famously unproductive part of the ocean.  It sustains no commercial fishery, for instance.  Even in the estuary, chlorophyll biomass is typically around 1 ug/l – only marginally higher than in the bay in general.  It would take a very large increase in nutrient loading to cause excessive productivity there.  Indeed, it is likely that a moderate increase in productivity might benefit rather than harm the beluga,” said Dr. McCullough.

 Gerrard and his Deputy Leader, Kevin Lamoureux, are calling on the Premier to stand by his leadership race promise and to revisit the nitrogen removal issue by conducting a new review and to publish the findings of the review in the form of a comparative study that clearly outlines the pros and cons of nitrogen removal, as well as a full cost analysis.

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To view a transcript of the Premier’s house statements on nitrogen and belugas, please visit:

http://www.gov.mb.ca/legislature/hansard/4th-39th/vol_06/h06.html#OQ   

For more information, please contact: Michelle Nyhof, Communications Officer for Manitoba Liberal Caucus

(204) 771-2513 or email: michelle.nyhof@leg.gov.mb.ca