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Winnipeg Free Press
21-07-2025
- Business
- Winnipeg Free Press
Letters, July 21
Opinion Energy plans Upon seeing the $7-billion price tag for upgrading the hydro system, my first thought was: how much dispersed hydro generation could that buy? And wouldn't that be safer than having so many of our energy eggs in one vulnerable basket? This reminds me of a few years ago when one of the Hydro honchos essentially told us they were in the hydro power business, not the wind and solar power business. My thought then was that a more responsible stance would be to consider themselves to be in the electric energy business — for Manitoba — whatever the source. Indeed, new power technology options are being developed every day. Our myopic reliance on giant hydro plants and long, long transmission corridors might very well become non-primary technology. And the most vulnerable option for our province. I may be missing something in all this, but I am not confident that Hydro has embraced a power generation worldview that isn't literally water/hydro powered. And I still wonder what's their vision on power generation beyond that? And as a Crown corporation, what's their sense of their role and responsibility in all this? Dan O'Dell Winnipeg The detailed analysis in the Free Press confirms what many Manitobans have long suspected but few in government have had the courage to address: Manitoba Hydro is teetering on the edge of a financial precipice. The staggering $20-billion debt load, combined with poor governance, lack of strategic vision, and politically manipulated rates, has created a dangerous imbalance — one that now threatens the financial health of both the utility and the province itself. Projects like Keeyask and Bipole III have ballooned in cost and delivered questionable value. Meanwhile, repeated political interference — from rate suppression to board turnover — has left Hydro rudderless, unable to make sound long-term decisions or invest wisely in future infrastructure. Let's not be misled: low rates have neither attracted major employers nor benefited taxpayers in the long run. In fact, they have effectively masked inefficiencies and delayed a necessary shift toward demand management, conservation, and green energy innovation. The result? Nearly $1 billion in annual interest payments and mounting risk of a credit downgrade. It is time to stop treating Hydro as a political tool and start governing it like the complex, high-stakes utility it is. That means restoring board independence, grounding rate decisions in economic reality, and holding Hydro leadership accountable for productivity and fiscal discipline. Manitobans deserve transparency, not talking points. Yog Rahi Gupta Winnipeg Blending faith and science Re: 100 years later, the Scopes 'Monkey Trial' still resonates (Think Tank, July 17) It is true, as Allan Levine argues, that the supposed conflict between science and the Bible still resonates today. One reason for this is that in our polarized world we tend to view reality through one lens only while excluding other explanations. This too often puts science on the scrimmage line against a particular understanding of the Bible. But science and the Bible, properly understood, are not opposing explanations; they complement one another. Science can be understood as a kind of map with its own way of describing reality. But a map of Canada does not exhaust our understanding of Canada. The Canadian Museum for Human Rights argues that all persons are created with equal dignity and rights. Science can help us understand this conviction, but we need something beyond the maps of science to more fully grasp it. And we need an understanding of the Bible other than creationism in order to engage science with integrity. Yes, this issue does have to do with life's meaning. Ray Harris Winnipeg Talk elsewhere Re: 'Hold your conversation' (Letters, July 15) Bravo to letter writer Ken McLean for voicing the concern that many of us have at live performances and in particular at the Winnipeg Folk Festival. If you must have a conversation, please take it away from the seating area where other people are trying to listen to the performance. Don't just raise your voice so that your friend can hear you above the performer. And, if someone asks you to take your chat elsewhere, please don't look at them as if you're the one who's being inconvenienced. Don Sourisseau Winnipeg Water bill too high We are all enjoying the wonderful summer so far, being at the lake, travelling or at home. If you are living in a house particularly in Winnipeg, please look at your recent water bill statement from the water and waste department. You might be surprised that an unexpected high water bill arrived to be paid within a period of time. Wow! Why am I paying such a high amount for water for a three-month period, I ask myself. What's with this statement? Is the amount due, correct? Is there a possibility of a calculated error? I called the water department recently. Their reply to my question: the city is building a new treatment plant, therefore we need revenue to complete the project. As I see it, to compensate for any losses in construction of this endeavour, Winnipeggers will cover the deficit. From December of 2024 to June of 2025, my water bill has increased by 15 per cent. Why such an increase? If you look at your water bill, the sewer cost ratio is probably almost twice in comparison to the water usage. Did your area have any sewer upgrades? If it did, then the increase justifies the water bill amount. My area hasn't had any sewer work done to substantiate an increase in fees. As Winnipeggers, we are being bombarded this year with a property tax increase, garbage collection increase and a water bill increase, 'three strikes' and many people are out financially. This is unreasonable and unsustainable. Grocery prices are skyrocketing, inflation is growing and imposed tariffs have a negative impact on our economy. Tremendous strain on the citizens of Winnipeg. What is next to swallow? My recommendation to the city, to alleviate the burden of paying the high water bills, is to introduce the same format that Manitoba Hydro operates on, pay monthly not quarterly. People would be able to budget and manage their financial monthly household expense, not get burdened with astronomical water bills. Peter John Manastyrsky Winnipeg Well wishes for columnist Re: Finally at a loss for an opinion (Think Tank, July 12) I am certain I join many readers of these pages in saying a heartfelt 'thank you' to professor Paul Thomas for the huge contribution his thoughtful columns have brought to the public issues of our times. His was always an informative and well-researched voice. I wish him well. Paul Moist Winnipeg
Winnipeg Free Press
18-07-2025
- Business
- Winnipeg Free Press
Manitoba Hydro plus growing debt: a bad equation
Opinion Manitoba Hydro's PUB filing raises new questions about the utility's financial sustainability with big implications for ratepayers and taxpayers. Hydro's forecast calls for annual rate hikes of 3.5 per cent, or a 40 per cent increase over the next 10 years. Even if these rates happen and there is no guarantee, given the current government's populist predilection towards pawning the 'crown jewel' of the province for immediate political cash, Hydro will not generate enough funds to support its business. Instead, to pay for refurbishment projects and for a small amount of new capacity, Hydro will try to increase its debt load by a further $8.6 billion. And this is a best-case scenario, given the likely occurrence of one more low-water level year (four of the past five), interest spikes, export price drops or the high probability of major projects exceeding budget. WINNIPEG FREE PRESS ILLUSTRATION Is Manitoba Hydro coming to the end of the financial line? Hydo acknowledges its precarious starting position stating 'there is no room left to allow material increases to the debt ratio while maintaining the financial health of the utility.' Only one other Crown utility could say this, Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro, before it received a more than $5-billion bailout from the federal government in 2021. It is also an understatement. At nearly $1 billion, Hydro's yearly interest payments now consume 35 cents of every dollar on your Hydro bill, far in excess of the average of seven cents across other North American utilities, private or Crown-owned. How did this happen? Foremost is Hydro's record of grossly inefficient capital spending. Over a 20-year span beginning in 2014, Hydro's debt-financed asset base will increase by 250 per cent, or nearly $20 billion, but will produce only 20 per cent more energy capacity. The Keeyask generating station and Bipole III — the latter which was primarily needed for transmission capacity but misleadingly justified on the basis of risk mitigation — are the main reasons. They created $12 billion in new debt but not enough new revenue to even cover the interest payments while starving Hydro of the scarce capital and people that should have been invested in rebuilding end-of -life core infrastructure. A planned 600 megawatts of private wind generation is excluded because even though it will create a sizable, debt-like expense, it is an intermittent energy source with minimal 'always on' contribution to our peak winter energy. And at the end of this period Hydro will still have significant, aged infrastructure. Second is Manitoba's poor performance managing energy demand to reduce the size and to extend the need date of expensive, new energy. The goal under Hydro's old Power Smart program was to reduce domestic peak load by 1,100 megawatts before 2028. In today's dollars, achieving half this target puts Manitoba in line with efficiency measures in other jurisdictions and is worth a $7-billion hydro generating station. Inexcusably, no measurable progress on peak load was made by Hydro. When Efficiency Manitoba took over in 2020, it ignored energy capacity altogether in favour of overall savings, whether or not achieved during times of the year or day when there is abundant or scarce capacity, and which have also fallen short of target every year. Last but not least are Hydro's burgeoning administration costs. Over the five years since 2022 wages and salaries will have grown by over 30 per cent, far outstripping revenue increases. This is due to contract settlements and wage bracket inflation of 3.5 to five per cent per year and hundreds of added employees, including 200 hires to satisfy a recent agreement with the IEBW. With almost 1,000 employees or nearly 20 per cent of its workforce, now earning over $150,000 per year, Hydro can be viewed as an important employer of highly skilled individuals in our province but fairly criticized for being untethered to effective productivity measures to assess the value of these positions. The consequences to Manitobans are real. In late 2022, the prior government reduced fees paid by Hydro to the province by $190 million per year on the basis of being excessive compared to other jurisdictions. The current government has gone further, cutting Hydro's capital taxes and debt guarantee fees worth more than $250 million annually. This is not justified on any basis, other than as an outright subsidy from Manitoba taxpayers to Hydro ratepayers at a cost of $5 billion over the next 20 years. Hydro's high and rising debt, large financial support from the province, low revenues due to politically suppressed rates, lack of board independence from government and massive downside risk tied to water levels will attract the attention of others, notably debt rating agencies like Moody's and DBRS and the provinces of B.C., Alberta and Saskatchewan whose taxpayers contribute billions into equalization payments made to Manitoba each year. In its PUB filing, Hydro highlights the risk of no longer being viewed as a self-supporting entity by DBRS. On their criteria noted above, it seems clear Hydro already fails the test or is on the razor's edge of doing so. If this happens Hydro, will be considered dependent and its obligations will be added to the province's, doubling our per capita debt overnight, leading to a credit downgrade and higher interest costs for the province and Hydro, potentially in hundreds of millions of dollars. On the equalization front, the case for adjusting Manitoba's own source revenue upward and payments from Ottawa downward will be much more convincingly made by the Western provinces based on Manitoba's near elimination of normal fee revenues from Hydro and its insistence on keeping Hydro rates below required levels. The math alone, shocking as it may to Manitobans who believed the low-cost energy narrative of every government for the past 20 years, shows that 3.5 per cent annual increases are insufficient. Rates will have to go up more and they should be paid for by those who consume the most energy and who can afford it, for example larger residences, larger businesses and major industrial users. This is done in other jurisdictions to varying degrees and needs to start yesterday in Manitoba — likewise, demand management and usage incentives that will curtail our peak power use. Higher rates will not cause any large employer to leave the province just as lower rates have not attracted a single large employer, despite the hype and promise, over the past 40 years. Higher rates will, finally, begin to price our energy for what it is, a scarce resource that must be conserved through efficiency and green energy initiatives that haven't been cost justified because of our low power bills. Early in my short tenure as chair of Manitoba Hydro, I connected with board members of other Crown and state-owned utilities looking for advice and a sanity check on the upside-down governance practices I encountered. Wednesdays Columnist Jen Zoratti looks at what's next in arts, life and pop culture. While I was not left reassured things would get better, I was guided by the perspective of a former CEO of the Tennessee Valley Authority, the largest government-owned utility in the U.S. Before our first conversation, he had read The Manitoba Hydro Act and said I should do the same to get grounded on Hydro's core purpose, which was to provide for the continuance of a supply of power to Manitobans in an economic and efficient manner. When one considers the fiscal mess Hydro faces today it is not hard to imagine how much could have been avoided if mandate letters from past successive governments had adhered to the Hydro Act and the inherent priorities of financial sustainability, operational excellence and effective capital deployment. The current PUB filing emphatically tells us there is no time or money left for more political adventures or overreach. It should be a clarion call for governance reform starting with a professional, highly competent and independent board, rather than well-intentioned, partisan individuals with limited authority and financial expertise and zero experience overseeing a complex, multibillion-dollar utility. Of all the seemingly intractable policy areas facing our provincial government, this single change is surely one of the most achievable and with the most potential to mitigate against the heightened risk of a financial calamity. Edward Kennedy is a former chairman of the board of Manitoba Hydro.
Winnipeg Free Press
16-07-2025
- Business
- Winnipeg Free Press
Plenty of blame to go around for long-delayed $7-B Hydro project
Opinion Now that Manitoba Hydro has decided to proceed with a $7-billion plan to overhaul essential components of its two main transmission lines, the political blame game can start in earnest. It's not hard to see why the NDP government would be trying to hold the former Progressive Conservative government responsible for delaying investments in Bipoles I and II, which has driven up the total cost, amassed historic levels of debt and triggered unprecedented electricity rate hikes. But is it a fair allegation? In politics, fair rarely has anything to do with it. First, some background about what Hydro calls the HVDC (High Voltage Direct Current) Reliability Project. Bipoles I and II — which carry 70 per cent of all electricity generated by Hydro — are both nearly 1,000 kilometres long. The HVDC Project would see new converters and connectors replaced at both ends of those lines to turn alternating current (AC) from generating stations into direct current (DC) for transmission and then back to AC again when it reaches the end of the transmission lines near Winnipeg. This is needed to reduce the amount of electricity lost during transmission. The HVDC project will cost at least $7 billion and require annual 3.5 per cent electricity rate hikes for at least 15 years. That's a sobering reality that has the NDP government nervously twitching. When asked by the Free Press about the project, Finance Minister Adrien Sala wasted little time assigning blame to the Tories, accusing the former government of failing 'to make necessary investments to ensure continued reliability at Hydro.' In pointing the long finger of blame, Sala is relying on the former PC government's proven track record of deferring and delaying investments in health care, infrastructure and public sector contract settlements to improve its bottom line and pave the way for billions in tax cuts. However, is this deferral of the much-needed replacement of HVDC equipment the latest example of the Tories kicking a costly can down the road? Not necessarily. According to Hydro, the HVDC equipment in question is now decades past its normal service life. Under normal circumstances, the converters and connectors have a roughly 35-year lifespan. Although converters on Bipole I are still within that best-before date, its connectors and the converters and connectors on Bipole II are way past the 35-year service life. In other words, this has been a concern hovering over NDP and PC governments since at least the early 2000s. Why didn't those earlier governments get out ahead of the need to replace HVDC components? In short, both the NDP and Tories had other and — they would both argue — better things to do. Between 1999 and 2016, NDP premiers Gary Doer and Greg Selinger were focused on adding additional generating capacity and building Bipole III, the much-needed third transmission line that runs down the west side of Lake Manitoba. One could fairly argue the construction of Bipole III needed to be done before tackling HVDC concerns on Bipoles I and II. However, it's impossible to ignore the fact the NDP knew the HVDC equipment was too old, and it still pushed the issue to the back burner. It was a decision that absolutely meant this project was going to become more costly. And what of the Tories? From 2016 to 2023, PC premiers Pallister and Stefanson had little interest in making new investments in Hydro. Instead, they seized on every opportunity to assail the NDP government's mishandling of the $5-billion Bipole III project. Pallister called Bipole III — which on the NDP's watch ballooned to more than twice its original estimated cost — the greatest political scandal in Manitoba history. The simple fact is that when you spend so much time protesting a $5-billion investment in a third transmission line, it's politically impractical to simultaneously launch a $7-billion overhaul of the two oldest transmission lines. It we take full account, how long have governments in this province been ignoring HVDC investments? That's a really hard question to answer. Hydro is taking a very politically cautious approach to that question. The paper trail shows this issue was well known within both Hydro and government going back to the mid 2010s. Officials from the crown utility would only say that over the years, they have been 'working on this issue at a lower level for a number of years' and performing 'enhanced maintenance' to ensure the existing converters and connectors remained in service beyond their best before dates. Tuesdays A weekly look at politics close to home and around the world. At the same time, the officials said other major projects — the Manitoba-Minnesota transmission line, the Keeyask generating station and Bipole III — demanded Hydro's full attention. This year was the first time Hydro included the HVDC project in its budget and rate application to the Public Utilities Board. So, to whom should blame be assigned? The fairest take is that successive governments, and Hydro itself, deferred work on the HVDC transmission system for a variety of reasons, leaving Manitoba vulnerable to a catastrophic interruption in power service. Any time controversy erupts, politicians love to point fingers at other people. In this instance, however, every government of every stripe can share in the blame. Dan LettColumnist Dan Lett is a columnist for the Free Press, providing opinion and commentary on politics in Winnipeg and beyond. Born and raised in Toronto, Dan joined the Free Press in 1986. Read more about Dan. Dan's columns are built on facts and reactions, but offer his personal views through arguments and analysis. The Free Press' editing team reviews Dan's columns before they are posted online or published in print — part of the our tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press's history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates. Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
Winnipeg Free Press
15-07-2025
- Business
- Winnipeg Free Press
Manitoba Hydro embarks on $7-billion overhaul of two main transmission lines
Manitoba Hydro has launched a historic and long overdue overhaul of its two main transmission lines that will cost at least $7 billion and require up to 15 years of electricity rate hikes, the Free Press has learned. The HVDC (high-voltage direct current) Reliability Project involves the replacement of the converter stations and other equipment at both ends of Bipoles I and II, the two main transmission lines that each run nearly 1,000 kilometres from northern Manitoba through the Interlake to Winnipeg. The two lines carry more than 70 per cent of Hydro's total generated electricity. WAYNE GLOWACKI / FREE PRESS FILES Manitoba Hydro has launched a historic and long overdue overhaul of its two main transmission lines that will cost at least $7 billion. WAYNE GLOWACKI / FREE PRESS FILES Manitoba Hydro has launched a historic and long overdue overhaul of its two main transmission lines that will cost at least $7 billion. Hydro has estimated the project will cost at least $7 billion, although because it is still at a very early stage, officials at the utility concede the final price tag will be higher. A Hydro spokesman confirmed the utility has started a procurement process that will establish a precise cost to replace the converter stations and is conducting a search for contractors to oversee the work. A more accurate estimate of the total cost will not be available until 'the full scope of work' is identified, the spokesman said. Even at $7 billion, this would be the most expensive capital project undertaken by the Crown corporation, exceeding the investments made in any single generating station. It's significantly more than the cost of Bipole III, the politically controversial transmission line that runs from the north along the west side of Lake Manitoba. Bipole III was completed in 2018 at a cost of just over $5 billion. Hydro's 2026-28 rate application, which has been filed with the Public Utilities Board, said the project would take more than a decade to complete and based on Hydro's latest calculations, require 15 years of annual rate increases of 3.5 per cent. Although electricity rate increases are politically unpopular, Hydro will argue before the PUB that the viability of the transmission system is at stake if the work is not done. 'This is not just about meeting new energy needs in the future,' said Ben Graham, chairman of the Hydro board of directors. 'It's about ensuring a reliable grid now so that Manitobans will have the power they need when they need it.' MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS FILES Manitoba Finance Minister Adrien Sala, the minister responsible for Hydro, says the NDP government approved the HVDC project as part of its process of reviewing the utility's 2025-26 budget. MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS FILES Manitoba Finance Minister Adrien Sala, the minister responsible for Hydro, says the NDP government approved the HVDC project as part of its process of reviewing the utility's 2025-26 budget. Finance Minister Adrien Sala, the minister responsible for Hydro, said the NDP government approved the HVDC project as part of its process of reviewing the utility's 2025-26 budget. He said that despite urgings from Hydro, the previous Tory government ignored the state of the transmission line converters and deferred a formal decision about starting the HVDC project. 'We know for many years, the former government failed to make necessary investments to ensure continued reliability at Hydro, and also ensure that we would have the energy we needed to support Manitobans and our businesses,' Sala said. 'So, I think we're making sure that we keep that all important balance between preserving affordability while ensuring Manitobans have access to the energy they need to power their homes and their businesses.' 'For many years, the former government failed to make necessary investments to ensure continued reliability at Hydro.'–Finance Minister Adrien Sala Peggy Barker, board member with the Manitoba branch of the Consumers' Association of Canada, which monitors Hydro rate applications to the PUB, said she's concerned about the size and speed of the project given Hydro's poor performance in forecasting the cost of capital projects. 'For over 10 years, the Public Utilities Board and independent experts have said that Manitoba Hydro's process for deciding on the pacing and prioritization of asset management was not mature or adequate,' the association's statement said. 'While Hydro has made modest progress in recent years, there is still an absence of a mature, standardized methodology for ranking investments based on asset risk, customer value, and cost-effectiveness.' MARC GALLANT / FREE PRESS FILES Manitoba is known throughout the energy world for technology that has allowed electricity to be transmitted via high-voltage direct current lines over extremely long distances. MARC GALLANT / FREE PRESS FILES Manitoba is known throughout the energy world for technology that has allowed electricity to be transmitted via high-voltage direct current lines over extremely long distances. Bipole I went into operation in 1971 and underwent a major upgrade in 1993. Bipole II was fully completed in 1985. Currently, the converter stations that are essential for the transmission of power to the south are well past their life expectancy. Given the long distances the electricity must travel, converter stations are needed to convert alternating current (AC) that comes from the generating stations to direct current (DC) for transmission to reduce the amount of electricity lost during transmission. When the electricity reaches the other end of the transmission line, it is converted back to AC. In most instances, the converter stations are more expensive than the cost of erecting hundreds of kilometres of transmission lines. According to Hydro, the converter equipment normally has a life span of 35 years. Hydro currently estimates the earliest it could acquire and install new converters and connectors is between 2032 and 2037. By that time, the Bipole I converters will be 44 years old and its control mechanisms will be 65 years old, while Bipole II converters and controls will be 57 years old. Although the cost estimate and electricity rate hikes could be a source of political controversy, the need for the refurbishment project should not be a cause for much disagreement between the NDP government and opposition parties. The distance between northern generating stations and the southern region of the province, where most of the electricity is consumed, has always been a major source of concern for Hydro and the government of the day. MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS FILES Former Tory premier Brian Pallister called Bipole III the worst political scandal in the province's history and spent $1 million on an in-depth review of the project. MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS FILES Former Tory premier Brian Pallister called Bipole III the worst political scandal in the province's history and spent $1 million on an in-depth review of the project. In 1996, a huge wind storm damaged both Bipole I and II and nearly resulted in a blackout of Winnipeg. Hydro was forced to import electricity from Minnesota while both transmission lines were being repaired. Ultimately, that event became the motivation for the construction of Bipole III. Again, the need for the project was never really questioned; the cost and management of it by the then-NDP government of Gary Doer sparked years of political conflict. The final cost was nearly three times the initial estimate and the project was afflicted by numerous delays and mismanagement. Former Tory premier Brian Pallister called Bipole III the worst political scandal in the province's history, and spent $1 million to have former Saskatchewan premier Brad Wall, a Tory, conduct an in-depth review. The Wall review did not reveal new details about the project. The big question facing Hydro, and successive provincial governments of both political stripes, is why the HVDC project was delayed. By all accounts, Hydro has been planning for decades to replace essential equipment at both ends of the transmission lines. However, documents available at the PUB and legislative committee meetings show it was not discussed in detail until about 2016. An engineering report released by Hydro in 2019 fully explored the danger of pushing the equipment too far beyond its normal life span. The 2026-28 general rate application, now before the PUB, is the most detailed description yet of the need for, and cost of, replacing transmission converters and connectors. Tuesdays A weekly look at politics close to home and around the world. Manitoba is known throughout the energy world for technology that has allowed electricity to be transmitted via high-voltage direct current lines over extremely long distances. Bipole I (895 kilometres) and II (937 kilometres) run from the northern Radisson and Henday converter stations near Gillam, down to the Dorsey converter station just northwest of Winnipeg. Bipole III is much longer at 1,400 kilometres, starting at the Keewatinohk converter station near Gillam and ending at the Riel converter station east of Winnipeg. However, in its most recent submission, Hydro noted that Manitoba currently operates the oldest HVDC transmission system in the world. Dan LettColumnist Dan Lett is a columnist for the Free Press, providing opinion and commentary on politics in Winnipeg and beyond. Born and raised in Toronto, Dan joined the Free Press in 1986. Read more about Dan. Dan's columns are built on facts and reactions, but offer his personal views through arguments and analysis. The Free Press' editing team reviews Dan's columns before they are posted online or published in print — part of the our tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press's history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates. Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
CBC
09-02-2025
- Politics
- CBC
Manitoba Hydro looks for feedback on possible electricity rate hike, different rates during the day
While the Manitoba government has promised to keep electricity rates low, the province's energy Crown corporation is asking people for their thoughts on a rate hike for electricity and changes that could see different rates applied at different times of the day. Manitoba Hydro has commissioned an opinion poll saying it's faced with aging infrastructure and a growing demand for energy. The poll covers a variety of topics and floats some options. One question asks people how they would feel about paying an extra $9 a month, as an average residential customer, to maintain reliability, citing the need to spend money on infrastructure. "Without investments to maintain or replace aging infrastructure, Manitoba's electricity system is expected to decrease in reliability," the survey reads. "This would lead to more or longer power outages in coming years." Another question asks whether people might switch their use of large appliances to evenings or weekends, if it means saving money on monthly electrical bills. Some other provinces already have such a system, often called time-of-use rates, where charges are higher during the day and lower at night. The aim is to reduce spikes in demand at peak times. The lower spikes can in turn delay the need to build more generating capacity. The idea has been floated before and the NDP, while in Opposition in 2023, denounced it, saying it could lead to "surge pricing" with much higher rates at peak times. Manitoba Hydro said the poll is simply taking the pulse of the public and does not outline any firm plans. "We want to make sure we understand what's important to our customers, because that's an input into our long-term planning process," said spokesperson Scott Powell. "We always want to be open and see if people are amenable to ... using [time-of-use rates] as a potential solution to help reduce electricity demand peaks," Powell said. As for a $9-per-month rate hike mentioned in the poll, Powell said it's not currently on the table. "It's not reflective of any actual number that might be in a rate application, for example, but really designed to help determine what's important to customers when it comes to costs versus reliability." Even if Manitoba Hydro was to seek such an increase, it would have to be approved by the Public Utilities Board, the provincial regulator, following public hearings, Powell added. The utility has been hit with a number of financial challenges in the last two decades. It saw its debt triple in 15 years as it built two megaprojects — the Bipole III transmission line and the Keeyask generating station — which ran a combined $3.7 billion over budget. More recently, expected annual surpluses have turned into losses, partly due to dry weather and reduced water levels. The former chief executive officer, who was let go a year ago, also warned that new generating capacity could be needed as early as 2029. The NDP government made a one-year rate freeze a key part of its election platform in 2023, and Manitoba Hydro confirmed it will seek no increase for 2025. It plans to file a multi-year rate application in the coming months and has not indicated what rate it will seek for 2026 as part of that request. Finance Minister Adrien Sala, who is also the minister responsible for Manitoba Hydro, said in a statement that the government will rely on its long-term energy policy, released last September, which will "explore opt-in demand management and innovative, new options to keep [Manitobans'] energy bills low."
