The Public Utilities Board (PUB) sounded the alarm bell again last week when it rejected the latest application to increase your hydro rates. As a result of NDP mismanagement and political interference, Manitoba Hydro was looking for a 3.95% increase to your hydro bill beginning on April 1.
Not only was the sought after rate increase twice the amount of inflation, it follows annual increases and the expectation that similar increases are going to be requested for decades to come. And while the NDP will put forward endless excuses for the increases, the fact is that Hydro is being forced to pay billions more than necessary for capital projects like the Bi-Pole III transmission line. That project alone is already more than $3 billion over budget because the NDP are forcing it to be built on one of the longest routes imaginable.
All of this comes at a time when export prices for hydroelectricity have been consistently low and the prospects for future export revenues are in question. It also comes in the wake of massive tax and fee increases imposed on Manitobans by the NDP government.
The PUB’s refusal to grant the rate increase is a victory for ratepayers but it may very well be short-lived. As we’ve seen in the past, when the NDP are determined to take more money from Manitobans through tax increases or rate increases they will stop at almost nothing. But at the very least it should send a signal that there has to be some limit as to how much more Manitobans can be expected to keep paying.
Ultimately however, it will take a change in government, and not just a PUB rate application rejection, to prevent the NDP from continuing to mismanage Manitoba Hydro.
