Of all the decisions that Gary Doer has made as Premier of Manitoba over the past decade, the one that may have the longest negative impact is the decision to run the new Manitoba Hydro transmission line, known as BiPole III, down the west side of the province.
Mr. Doer’s decision, which is contrary to the advice of Manitoba Hydro itself, is going to cost provincial taxpayers for years. Not only is it at least $700 million more to put the line down the much longer western route than the eastern route, it is going to result in a less secure line and one that leaks power (known as line loss) which will cost millions in lost power sales.
Mr. Doer has said he will not allow Hydro to build the line on the east side of Lake Winnipeg because it would jeopardize a possible UNESCO World Heritage Site designation for the boreal forest and because there was opposition from first nations communities on the east side. However, it has been revealed that a hydro line would not impact a UNESCO designation. In fact, a new road for the east side of Lake Winnipeg is being developed and it will have no impact on a possible UNESCO designation, so why would a hydro line? And as for the first nations communities, they are very interested in having the new hydro line possibly run along the eastern route.
The fact that this is a wrong decision for Manitobans was emphasized this past week when Minto MLA and NDP leadership candidate, Andrew Swan, came out and said he would listen to east side first nation communities who want Bipole III in their region. That is in contrast to Mr. Doer who has said there would be no further discussions about putting the line down the east side.
The sudden reversal of the NDP position put forward by Mr. Swan shows the division there is, even within the NDP Caucus, to Mr. Doer’s decision to force Manitoba Hydro to put the line down the west side. Also on the day of Mr. Swan’s statement, Manitoba Hydro itself said it plans to continue to have consultations and to look at alternatives to the west side route dictated by Mr. Doer.
The decision by Mr. Doer to run a new hydro transmission line from the north down the west side of Lake Winnipeg at an additional cost of hundreds of millions of dollars to Manitoba taxpayers never made any sense. Manitoba Hydro officials knew it was the wrong decision. Manitobans knew it was the wrong decision. And it is now clear from Mr. Swan’s comments that a number of NDP members knew it was the wrong decision.
The question now is, after already wasting precious time and forcing the line down the wrong side of the province, will Mr. Doer’s departure as Premier this fall result in the right decision finally being made on the location of Bipole III.
