View From the Legislature

Local residents have been sending a clear message for a number of years now that it is foolish of Premier Greg Selinger and the NDP to force Manitoba Hydro to build a new transmission line (Bi-Pole III) from northeastern Manitoba to Winnipeg down the west side of the province when an eastern route would be shorter, safer and save hundreds of millions of tax dollars.

This concern grew even loader last week when it was revealed in a new report by the Public Utilities Board (PUB) that Manitoba Hydro ratepayers may be subsidizing the cost of selling hydro to our American customers in the years ahead. The PUB issued this warning after its analysis of Manitoba Hydro found that the crown corporation may be understating the costs of planned future capital projects while overstating the value of future export sales. The Public Utilities Board says this could result in “domestic ratepayers subsidizing export sales to the United States.”

There were even more red flags raised by the report. It went on to suggest that Manitobans could face soaring electrical rates over the coming years. Specifically, it warned that hydro rates for Manitoba customers could go up as high as 140% over the next 20 years as a result of costs on projects being higher than expected export revenues.

The report is just the latest in a series of concerns about how the NDP government is mismanaging Manitoba Hydro. Constant interference in the decisions of the crown corporation combined with repeated raiding of funds from Hydro has resulted in the Public Utilities Board demanding more information into the finances of Hydro;  information that the government has yet to provide.

The decision by Premier Greg Selinger to force the Bi-Pole III transmission line down the wrong side of the province is just the most recent and most public example of the NDP government’s meddling into Hydro. It will come at a cost to generations of Manitobans if the decision is not reversed and thankfully, there is still time to reverse the decision.

Most concerning is that by not letting Manitoba Hydro manage itself based upon the best advice of experts instead of political interference, the NDP are preventing this crown corporation from reaching its potential as the economic engine of Manitoba. While it is often said that hydro is to Manitoba what oil is to Alberta, that potential will not be realized with a government that continues to politically interfere with the corporation.

Manitoba Hydro needs to be the crown jewel of our crown corporations and for that to happen the NDP need to keep their hands off of it.