The Manitoba Chambers of Commerce and the Portage la Prairie & District Chamber of Commerce are collaborating to discuss climate action within the Portage's business community.

The project is called the Climate Action Business Training and Discussion Series and is the second installment of its kind, with the first taking place in 2019.

Elizabeth Saftiuk, Manitoba Chambers of Commerce Vice President of Policy and Government Relations, says this is an essential initiative for the future of Manitoba.

"It's really designed to help build awareness and grow capacity amongst Manitoba small and medium-sized enterprises. The intent is to help them enhance their resilience to climate change and help them to look to the future for achieving carbon reductions."

Saftiuk explains that the two-hour event will happen on May 2nd from 11:30 a.m. until 1:30 p.m. at the Herman Prior Activity Centre.

"There's about 60 minutes of training and education, followed by 30 minutes of open discussion."

Getting a better sense of climate change is what the chambers are hoping these businesses take out of the event, according to Saftiuk.

"Frankly, a lot of the larger businesses have the capacity to have a department focus on energy reduction, climate change, adaptation, resilience. But the reality is that many smaller or medium-sized businesses aren't able to prioritize this."

The Government of Canada has implemented detailed measures that the nation has to try and reach net emissions by 2050.

"It's good to get ahead of this. It's good to understand what the policies and legislations are doing, how it's going to impact us and what businesses can do about it."