Manitoba Hydro has been compared to many things. It has been described as equivalent, in economic terms, to Alberta’s oil resources. It has also been said that Manitoba Hydro is the goose that lays the golden egg for the provincial economy. If that is the case, the NDP need to be a little more careful how they treat this goose.
While Manitoba Hydro is an invaluable resource to the province and the future of its economy, it is, like any other resource, vulnerable to being mismanaged. That was shown again this past week with the announcement that Manitoba Hydro had lost $15 million in the first three months of the current fiscal year and lost $100 million in revenue last year.
The loss comes despite the fact that the volume of power sold in Manitoba and the rate that hydro sells that power for are at record highs. While the loss is by no means crippling for Hydro, it is a reminder that the province’s largest crown corporation must always be operating in the best financial interests of Manitobans because it is not always guaranteed to be profitable.
The CEO for Manitoba Hydro recently sent out a memo to management staff of the crown corporation asking them to seek more efficiencies and ways to cut back on costs due to the losses that Manitoba Hydro was incurring. Seeking efficiencies is important, but what about the most glaring inefficiency; the decision to build the new Bi-Pole transmission line on the west side of Lake Winnipeg even though running it on the east side would save Hydro more than a billion dollars because it a shorter, safer and more environmentally friendly route.
The decision by the NDP government under Premier Greg Selinger to choose a route for the new transmission line that cuts through prime agricultural land and that is 479 kilometers longer than the preferred route on the east side of Lake Winnipeg is one of the biggest examples of waste imaginable. It’s a decision, if it proceeds, that will impact the crown corporation for decades and will result in higher hydro rates for Manitobans.
Fortunately, there is still time for the decision to be changed as construction on the new line will not begin for at least two or three years according to Manitoba Hydro officials. But long before that, the NDP government could decide to stop meddling in the affairs of Hydro and allow the corporation to build the transmission line on the shorter route which Hydro has long preferred.
The first quarter loss for Manitoba Hydro and the drop of $100 million in revenues last year is a warning that the corporation needs to always make good decisions to ensure it becomes the kind of economic engine for the province that benefits all of us. Wasting more than a billion dollars putting the new Bi-Pole transmission line on the wrong side of the province is no way to treat the goose that lays the golden egg for the province.
