A new report says Saskatchewan has a lot of work to do when it comes to combating climate change.
The report says although this province makes up only three per cent of the country’s population, it accounts for 10 per cent of Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions.
Executive Director of the Office of the Treaty Commissioner Harry Lafond is one of four people who presided over the citizens’ hearings on climate change held in Saskatoon last fall.
He says a number of Aboriginal stakeholders were consulted as part of drafting the report, including Rose Richardson of Green Lake.
“It was kind of an eye opener because you really don’t think about berry picking and collecting muskeg tea as plants that would be affected but she talked about that she has noticed a significant change,” he says.
The report says flooding, droughts and extreme weather changes in Saskatchewan are also just a few of the results of global climate change.
Lafond says the effects of global climate change on recent weather patterns in northern Saskatchewan is something that warrants further research as well.
“Some of the stories that come from northern communities about the impact on ice conditions in the wintertime, and that kind of thing, requires closer scrutiny.”
He adds both governments and industry need to do a better job in terms of consulting with Indigenous people on the possible effects of climate change in their communities.
The Final Report on the Saskatchewan Citizens’ Hearings on Climate Change makes a number of recommendations including that the provincial government needs to invest more seriously in renewable forms of energy such as wind and solar power.
The report is the result of a two-day forum held in Saskatoon last November.
About 200 people attended and the forum heard from 36 experts, activists and educators.