Last week the NDP government announced the route the new Bi-Pole transmission line will take on its way from northeast Manitoba to a converter station on the southeast side of Winnipeg.
While it was Manitoba Hydro that made the official announcement, there is no doubt that where the line will go was a result of direction by the NDP government. Manitoba Hydro has long stated that it prefers to put the transmission line along the east side of Lake Winnipeg. After all, since it would be carrying power from the northeast part of the province, running the line on the east side of the lake would be the shortest, cheapest, safest and most environmentally friendly route.
So why was it announced last week that the transmission line would instead be built west of Lake Winnipeg when that route is 479 kilometers longer, results in more trees lost, and costs every Manitoba family $7,000? The reason the west side route is now being planned is because Premier Greg Selinger, when he was still the minister responsible for Manitoba Hydro, instructed the crown corporation to build the line on the west side. He overruled Hydro’s desire to build it on the east side.
The proposed route for the line will also go through prime farmland, some of it locally in the municipalities of Hanover, Tache and Springfield. Residents of these areas have been expressing concern since the announcement not simply because the line will cross on their land or near their land, but because they don’t understand why the NDP has chosen such an undesirable route for the line.
They join engineers, Hydro officials and many community leaders on the east side of Lake Winnipeg who say that the most logical and beneficial route of Bi-Pole III is the east side of the lake.
The only good news in what is otherwise a decision that is terrible for the long-term interests of Manitobans and Manitoba Hydro is that it is not too late to change it. Manitoba Hydro officials indicated that construction of Bi-Pole III cannot start for at least 2 or 3 years.
With an election scheduled for October of 2011 it means that if a new government were elected it would have the opportunity to change the route of the line to the east side, something Manitoba Progressive Conservatives have committed to do. And because the east side route is so much shorter, it would reduce the amount of time it takes to build the line by 2 years meaning it would not only be a shorter, safer, cheaper and more environmentally friendly decision, it would get the line into service faster.
The NDP decision to put the new transmission line on the west side was the wrong decision. Hopefully this government or another will get the decision right and change the route to the east side for the benefit of all Manitobans.
