NDP being deceptive about Hydro

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 20/09/2011 (5514 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Former Manitoba Hydro CEO Len Bateman made a startling revelation recently: Hydro cannot be privatized without a referendum.

It’s Manitobans who will decide whether Hydro gets privatized, not the premier.

The Hydro Act states “… the government first puts the question of the advisability of the privatization to the voters of Manitoba in a referendum.”

The act was changed in 2001 when Greg Selinger was the minister responsible for Hydro. It effectively blocks any attempt to privatize. Selinger knows this, and yet he persists in deceiving Manitobans by accusing Hugh McFadyen of planning to privatize Hydro.

This kind of baseless propaganda is the height of dishonesty. Since the campaign started, there has been a series of deceptions and lies by the NDP on Hydro issues, especially Bipole III, that are intended to confuse the public in order to cover up their reckless decision.

Selinger set the tone of the campaign at an NDP rally in 2010. He claimed the east-side Bipole III route would cause “mass deforestation.”

Not true. Only 10 out of 40,000 sq km need to be cleared for the line. That cannot be called “mass deforestation.”

Next came the spin on the additional cost of the longer west line. The Bipole III Coalition, of which I am a director, calculated the total additional cost at $1 billion.

Hydro CEO Bob Brennan submitted a value of $13.68 per family per year as being the true additional cost of the west line. His calculation contained serious errors and omissions. He used the physical line cost differential and ignored losses (major engineering mistake) and ignored the cost of financing (major accounting mistake).

While the cost debate was raging, Deputy Premier Rosann Wowchuk said the reason the DC line was routed near the Saskatchewan boundary was so Hydro could sell power to Saskatchewan.

Get a grip, Rosann. DC transmission is used for point-to-point transmission and nobody would build a costly conversion station ($1 billion) to sell a small amount of power for which transmission already exists.

The deceptions continued. In June, they made another startling statement that “Manitobans will not pay one cent” for the extra cost of the west line. The Americans would pay for it.

Again, another lie. Purchases by U.S. utilities are based on their least-cost alternatives, not Manitoba’s cost. There is competition in this business. If you want more profit, you have to build a shorter, cheaper line on the east side.

The NDP were now in overdrive with fabricating spins. Stan Struthers claimed Americans would not buy hydro power if a tree was cut on the east side. A quick check of U.S. legislation showed this was another lie. Americans want our clean hydro power, but nothing is said about where to build our transmission lines.

Like a winter storm, the lies kept coming. On June 10, Selinger stated, “We have already spent $100 million, and it’s too late to change the route.” A close examination of the facts indicated only $45 million was spent. It is still a lot of money, but substantially less then $100 million quoted, and peanuts compared to a saving of $1 billion.

For the past five years, there has been substantial promotion and lobbying by the NDP government for the heritage site designation.

Shockingly, it was revealed in June that nobody in government had even contacted UNESCO officials. Manitobans were led to believe the heritage site designation was imminent. It was not.

Politicians, who are so deceitful and dishonest, are not worthy to hold public office in this great province.

WILL TISHINSKI

Former engineering vice-president

of Manitoba Hydro

Winnipeg