The Thompson Citizen, which was established in June 1960, covers the City of Thompson and Nickel Belt Region of Northern Manitoba. The city has a population of about 13,500 residents while the regional population is more than 40,000. editor@thompsoncitizen.net
There was good news and bad news about Manitoba’s environment in the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment’s 2010-2011 progress report on the Canada-Wide Acid Rain Strategy for Post-200 that was released earlier this spring.
The bad news was that Manitoba was the third-largest emitter of sulphur dioxide (SO2) in Canada in 2010, accounting for 14 per cent of the total, behind only Alberta t 27 per cent and Ontario at 20 per cent.
The good news was that SO2 emissions from Manitoba in 2010 were down 44 per cent from their 2008 level, to 197,000 tonnes from 350,000 tonnes, thanks in part to the closure that year of Hudbay’s copper smelter in Flin Flon, which was expected to reduce total emissions of SO2 by 185,000 tonnes per year. That was the largest relative decrease in S02 emissions in any province over the same two-year period.
And while it will not be good for the local economy, the scheduled closure of Vale’s smelter in Thompson in 2015 is expected to reduce the amount of sulphur dioxide emitted in Manitoba by another 185,000 tonnes. Together, those two smelters had accounted for the bulk of the emissions produced by the nonferrous mining and smelting sector, which was responsible for 98 per cent of all SO2 emissions in Manitoba. Another 700 tons of SO2 emissions were expected to be eliminated by Manitoba Hydro phasing out the use of coal to generate electricity, except in emergency situations, which began in 2010.
Until that closure occurs, however, northern Manitoba is one of just a few areas in Canada – along with southern Ontario and Quebec, the Vancouver area and parts of northern Alberta and Saskatchewan, with a 75 to 100 per cent chance of surpassing critical loads – the amount of acid that can de deposited in an ecosystem over the long term before it is significantly harmed, according to an analysis conducted by Trent University in 2010.
Manitoba tied with Nova Scotia and New Brunswick as the provinces with the second-lowest nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions in the country, each accounting for about three per cent of Canada’s total. The only province that emitted a lower share, at two per cent, was New Brunswick.
Non-ferrous smelting and refining accounts for 27.2 per cent of all SO2 emissions in Canada, while mining, rock quarrying and iron ore mining accounted for five per cent of the country’s total NOx emissions in 2010.
Sulphur dioxide emissions in Canada have decreased 63 per cent since 1985 and NOx emissions by 17 per cent, thanks mostly to a reduction of the amounts produced by base metal smelters due to a combination of a code of practice and implementation of pollution prevention plans.
The Canada-Wide Acid Rain Strategy for Post-2000 was established by federal, provincial and territorial environment and energy ministers in 1998 to establish new SO2 emission reduction targets in eastern Canada, prevent pollution and keep clean areas clean, and to report on SO2 and NOx emissions and forecasts, on compliance with international commitments and on progress in implementing the strategy.