When it comes to Manitoba Hydro, reliability is everything. It powers our economy to the tune of half a billion dollars every year, and it does so while providing the lowest power rates in North America.
Manitobans have learned that (Manitoba Progressive Conservative leader) Hugh McFadyen has been misleading them once again when it comes to the west side Bipole III line.
While McFadyen continues to claim Bipole III on the west side will have a price tag of over $11,000 (per Manitoba family), the reality is Manitoba families will not pay one cent for Bipole III – it will be paid for by export sales.
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In fact, at Manitoba Hydro committee on May 30, Hydro president and CEO Bob Brennan stated for the record that even if there were no export sales, the annual incremental cost of building Bipole III on the west side to Manitobans would be less than $13.68 a year over the life of the line.
In fact, if you multiply McFadyen’s number by the 325,000 families that live in Manitoba, you get $3.8 billion. That’s more than the entire cost – $3.2 billion – of the new Bipole line and the new converters combined. That means he must be planning to cancel the converters and sell off another $600 million worth of Manitoba Hydro assets.
That sounds like phase one of his plan to privatize our utility.
Manitobans know they can’t trust the Tories to save Manitoba Hydro -they remember when they promised not to sell off MTS. Manitobans know that it was McFadyen himself who was whispering advice in Gary Filmon’s ear when he stood in the legislature and said, “we had no plans to sell the Manitoba Telephone System.”
Less than two months later, the company was gone.
Rosann Wowchuk,Minister responsible for Manitoba Hydro, Winnipeg, Man.
