Brandon to get $3B turbine facility

WINNIPEG — A $3-billion combustion turbine facility is proposed for Westman as Manitoba Hydro anticipates power shortages in the coming years.

The provincial government announced the proposal during its throne speech Tuesday.

“We’re Trump-proofing our economy by having power sovereignty,” Premier Wab Kinew said. “(It’s so) we’re no longer as reliant on bringing in electricity during the coldest days of our winter.”

The project would install additional combustion turbines at the Brandon Generating Station and be in place by 2030 at the latest.

Manitoba Hydro proposed a roughly $1.4-billion combustion turbine facility earlier this year. It sent a submission to the Public Utilities Board, asking for a preliminary estimate review.

Hydro expects a “sustained winter peak capacity deficit” by 2029-30, it wrote in its filing. It envisioned a new plant with two 250-megawatt simple-cycle combustion turbines near the existing Hydro generating station in Brandon.

The build announced Tuesday will have three dual-fuel combustion turbines generating a combined 750 megawatts of power — one more turbine than originally proposed.

“Just making sure that as our economy grows, we’re going to have the capacity to meet the needs of Manitobans and future business people,” Kinew said.

Natural gas will be burned and the goal is to eventually shift to an energy source such as renewable methane or hydrogen, Kinew said. The power mix will include 600 megawatts of wind; the plant would only fire when needed, not year-round.

“We’re on a path to net zero, so the environmental piece is something that we’re going to look at throughout,” Kinew said about the facility’s environmental impact.

“What can we do in terms of offsetting that firing period to make sure that we’re doing right by climate change and fighting against global warming? That’s part of the plan.”

Kinew didn’t give a timeline for new construction but said the announcement likely wouldn’t be the “last word” on new power generation in Manitoba.

The throne speech was packed with promises on the economy and public safety, with the government vowing to make the health-care system safer by boosting staff-to-patient ratios and eliminating mandatory overtime for nurses.

The speech, read by Lt.-Gov. Anita Neville, included plans for a Manitoba-wide crackdown on meth, new rules to stop “unfair” rent increases, four new schools, 402 new child-care spaces in Winnipeg and Brandon, and a renewed commitment to balance the budget by 2027 without raising taxes.

“We’ve got all these great ideas on health care and the economy and we’ve got to execute those while still being responsible with spending, growing the economy and being balanced when it comes to revenue — that’s a very narrow path,” Kinew told reporters.

The spring budget won’t include tax increases, said the premier, who promised to fix health care and vowed to enshrine patient safety into law.

“We just want to take steps to ensure that your safety as a patient is going to be improved,” Kinew said. “At the same time, because we’re looking to fix health care (and) lower wait times, we’ve got to take care of the staff as well. The staff are the crucial piece to deliver you the health-care experience that you want.”

The province will create a new patient safety charter that puts into law Manitobans’ right to “good health care.”

Mandatory overtime will be eliminated for staff, starting with front-line nurses. Staff-to-patient ratios will be created in priority areas, including hospital emergency rooms. The premier said 3,500 new health-care staff, including 1,200 nurses, have been added since the NDP took office two years ago.

“We have added the staff, we are spending more money than ever on health care. I’m confident that those on the front lines are doing their job,” Kinew said. “We need the administration to do their job now and there will be standards.”

The Manitoba Nurses Union said there aren’t enough staff and pointed to the 37 per cent vacancy rate in obstetric nurse positions at the Thompson hospital, among “many, many vacancies” across the province.

“We’re still in a nursing shortage,” president Darlene Jackson said.

She noted that Kinew promised legislation to end mandatory overtime seven years ago when he was opposition leader.

“It’s a positive concept, but I don’t see we’re at that point right now,” Jackson said.

Legislating such changes will require consultation, said Doctors Manitoba president Dr. Nichelle Desilets, who practises in Neepawa.

“As a doctor who works in a small town, I’m very sensitive to new rules that can actually compromise keeping our hospital open and keeping those services available,” she said at the legislature. “I think a measured, balanced approach with gradual implementation and proper consultation is the way to go.”

The long-promised supervised drug consumption site will start operating in downtown Winnipeg in January, the NDP pledged.

New legislation will target the sale of dangerous weapons, including machetes, on online marketplaces, and ban them from public spaces, such as parks and buses.

Kinew said the province will commission a study to look into grocery costs. Potential measures could be included in the spring budget.

Manitoba’s promised $2,500 security rebate program for businesses will start in December, the throne speech said.

Tory Leader Obby Khan reacted by picking apart the throne speech.

“There was not one iota of concrete economic growth in this throne speech that hasn’t been announced before,” he said. “Health care is worse, crime is higher. Affordability is at all time unattainable for Manitobans … That’s all glossed over and ignored.”

Other measures in the government’s legislative agenda include the elimination of mandatory sick notes for short-term absences from work, and a new online portal that will give Manitoba patients access to lab results and immunization records.

One highlight, reported in yesterday’s Sun, is the plan to build an overpass at the Trans-Canada Highway and Highway 5, north of Carberry, following the crash that killed 17 seniors two years ago.

“This intersection is different than any other intersection because of the loss of life,” Kinew said.

He expects more overpasses will be built, and asked the transportation department to “give me a modular design that we can repeat over and over and over again.”

» Winnipeg Free Press