Wowchuk complaint hypocritical
Advertisement
Read this article for free:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
We need your support!
Local journalism needs your support!
As we navigate through unprecedented times, our journalists are working harder than ever to bring you the latest local updates to keep you safe and informed.
Now, more than ever, we need your support.
Starting at $15.99 plus taxes every four weeks you can access your Brandon Sun online and full access to all content as it appears on our website.
Subscribe Nowor call circulation directly at (204) 727-0527.
Your pledge helps to ensure we provide the news that matters most to your community!
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Add Brandon Sun access to your Free Press subscription for only an additional
$1 for the first 4 weeks*
*Your next subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $20.00 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $24.00 plus GST every four weeks.
Read unlimited articles for free today:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 21/11/2013 (4344 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Rosann Wowchuk, former NDP minister responsible for Manitoba Hydro, is complaining that the call by an increasing number of Manitobans for a non-partisan, fully independent and informed review of Hydro’s expansion plans is nothing more than a delay tactic.
On the subject of delays, there is no higher authority than Ms. Wowchuk. As the responsible minister, and later as deputy premier, she was in a position to launch the requested review as early as five years ago. That was the first time, of many, that the Public Utilities Board formally called for the establishment of “a quasi-judicial panel with an independent adjudicative authority and evidence based process” to review Hydro’s expansion plans.
But she and the rest of the NDP cabinet chose to ignore those calls. They chose instead to delay the review with a plan to introduce a severely compromised review years later.
They decided to get the expansion started without informed review and authorization. The ill-conceived Bipole III is now licensed, the damn-the-torpedoes environmental review of the Keeyask generating station is underway, and Hydro has launched its so-called “engagement” exercise for transmission lines that will export and distribute that power. With this disingenuous and dangerous strategy, they hoped then, and still do, that the expansion would be so far advanced that it will not be possible for any future government to pause the project.
Ms. Wowchuk has been gone from the legislature for more than two years but obviously not from the NDP. Considering the NDP’s track record on this issue, it is hypocritical to paint as a delay tactic a call for a broadly based review that should have begun several years ago under her watch.
GARLAND LALIBERTE
Engineering Dean Emeritus
University of Manitoba