View From the Legislature

During the last provincial election Greg Selinger and the NDP ran ads saying that Manitobans would not have to pay one penny for the cost of constructing the BiPole III hydro transmission line. During the election they were saying that the hydro line, which is being built on virtually the longest route possible, would cost just over $2 billion and would be paid for by export customers.

Well that was then. Today it is a completely different story. The cost of the BiPole III line is no longer $2 billion. The new estimate by the NDP is the line will cost $4.6 billion, double the cost that was stated in the last election by the NDP.

Remember, this is a line that was originally projected in 2005 to cost $1 billion to build on the east side of Lake Winnipeg which represented the shortest route. But when the NDP and Greg Selinger demanded that the line go on the west side of Lake Winnipeg the cost started going up and up and has never stopped.

But what about the promise that the cost of the line would be paid for by export customers? Well that NDP promise has now been broken as well. Last week at a committee hearing at the Manitoba Legislature, the President of Manitoba Hydro Scott Thomson contradicted the 2011 NDP election promise and said that it would be Manitobans who would pay for the cost of BiPole III “just like they pay for all of their other assets that are installed to serve their needs.”

Of course it will be Manitobans who end up paying for this boondoggle that the NDP have created. The NDP knew all along that the cost of the BiPole III line on the west side would be astronomical and they knew all along that Manitobans would be paying for it through higher and higher hydro rates each and every year for decades to come.

The NDP also knew they would be raising the PST after the election and that the provincial budget would not be balanced when they promised it would. The fact is that the NDP have a huge credibility gap and few Manitobans believe that they are able to deliver on the promises that they make.

The inflated cost of the BiPole III line and the fact that Manitobans will be on the hook to pay for it are just the most recent examples of a government that will say anything to stay in power and then force Manitobans to pay for the consequences of it. And those costs just keep on adding up.