The Koch Fertilizer plant in Brandon, Man., was noted as the largest emitter of greenhouse gases in Manitoba in 2008. (Courtesy Joel Melcosky)

The Manitoba government has launched a website to gather input on proposed cap-and-trade laws aimed at reducing harmful emissions from polluting industries.

“It’s good that the provincial government is pursuing cap-and-trade,” Curt Hull, project manager of Climate Change Connection, a website run by the non-governmental Manitoba Eco-Network, told CBC News in a recent interview. "It was unclear if they were going to pursue it. But with this initiative, it’s clear that they are.”

Cap-and-trade is a market-based approach to cutting greenhouse gases that uses economic incentives to force industrial polluters to meet an overall emissions reduction target.

Polluters get emission allowances equal to the amount of pollution the government wants to limit. If a factory’s pollution exceeds the target, it must purchase emission allowances from facilities that have reduced more than their share and have allowances to spare. Supply and demand of these scarce allowances creates a sort of market price for the pollution.

Hull, an advocate of the approach, said the system creates genuine economic incentives to encourage industry to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Manitoba’s cap-and-trade plan would affect about 18 emitters — factories, mills and perhaps universities and hospitals — that release more than 25,000 kilotonnes each of greenhouse gases per year.

Another group of about 36 emitters that releases 10,000 kilotonnes per year each would only be required to report their emissions.

In 2008, the Koch Fertilizer plant in Brandon was the largest emitter in Manitoba, followed by Manitoba Hydro, Winnipeg's Brady Road Landfill, TransCanada Pipelines and HudBay Minerals, according to data from Environment Canada.

Consultations on the plan are through the Manitoba Conservation Department website. People can read about the plan and submit comments until March 15, 2011.

Some say online consultations don't go far enough.

“It appears there’s no public meetings, no presentations,” Gaile Whelan-Enns of Climate Action Network Canada told CBC News when asked about the online system.

Whelan-Enns said she would like to see public forums and an education campaign on cap-and-trade.

Cap-and-trade analyst Matt Horne of the Pembina Institute in Vancouver told CBC News that thorough consultation on the topic is vital.

“There’s a bunch of nuts and bolt issues that really do matter," he said. "The devil is in the details.”

Manitoba’s system would integrate with the Western Climate Initiative (WCI), a regional cap-and-trade program championed by outgoing California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. WCI’s members are B.C., Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, California and six other western U.S. states.

Under that initiative a Manitoba factory could trade pollution allowances with firms in California, for example. Each WCI province or state has agreed to cut emissions to 15 per cent below 2005 levels by 2020.