Bipole flip-flop will be best for all Manitobans

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 12/10/2011 (5349 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Just because you can do something, doesn’t mean you should do it.

The same holds true for the Selinger government’s wrongheaded decision a few years ago to waste a vast fortune of money and destroy valuable farmland by driving the Bipole III hydro transmission line down the west side of the province.

But we know the re-elected premier and his majority government will not reverse its position — despite flying in the face of logic, reality, experts and basic common sense — as they campaigned hard on keeping the route to the west.

The New Democrats claim they want to protect some boreal forest in the east, and are willing to add hundreds of kilometres to the Bipole line and add several hundred million dollars to the price tag.

All this in an apparent bid to have that area considered to designated as a “world heritage site” by UNESCO. And we’re not even sure what benefits that designation would mean for Manitoba.

We have to note that the NDP figures it’s an acceptable risk to the UNESCO bid to chainsaw a long, all weather road through the boreal forest to connect some remote communities.

But no, a hydro line would be too much.

But we do know that the western route for Bipole III also means huge costs in wasted energy that will be lost in the extra length of the cables.

But we’re sure Greg Selinger’s going to stick to his guns on his one.

McFadyen had stated his first order of the day if elected would be to reverse the NDP’s decision. And the issue drew one of the more heated attacks of the recent election campaign by Selinger on Progressive Conservative Leader Hugh McFadyen during a debate in Brandon.

That’s when Selinger accused the Tories of threatening the entire project by letting Hydro revert to its original route — the one Manitoba Hydro selected before political hands got in the mix — which allegedly could face opposition from environmentalists and aboriginal groups.

“Only the leader of the Opposition will derail it with his crazy plan to put the Bipole down the east side (of the province),” Selinger said.

Yup, take two strings and trace out the two routes. Now hold the strings up and see which is demonstrably longer.

Who’s crazy now, Premier Selinger?

Experts have noted that the NDP’s western Bipole route will run north of Lake Winnipeg — at one point stretching to almost the Saskatchewan border — before angling back to Winnipeg along the west shores of Lake Winnipegosis and Lake Manitoba, much of the way running through prime farmland.

The added 480 kilometres of transmission line will require an extra 1,000 or so steel transmission towers each 18 storeys high (how green is the steel manufacturing process?)

Premier Selinger, during the election you promised to run Bipole down the west side. It worked. People in Winnipeg voted for you, but they don’t have any skin in the game. Southern Manitobans do, and for the most part, their wishes were made extremely clear with their vote.

While we realize this is an odd request from a media outlet that holds politicians’ feet to the fire for flip-flopping, we’re asking you to do just that.

There is clearly more environmental havoc having the line go down the west side than on the east side.

You will be ripping apart the very fabric of rural Manitoba — century-old family farms; panoramic landscapes that are actually seen by people all the time, and many small, rural communities.

Call for a study, find some gracious way to declare the situation has changed and there’s now a good argument — that you can make in the language your supporters speak — to be made for going down the east side.

Do the right thing for the province, Premier Selinger, and for those rural Manitobans you promised to govern fairly.

Don’t drag us down with dogma and ideology.