In the midst of the recent turmoil at Manitoba Hydro, a coalition of landowners wants to put the brakes on a proposed transmission line to Minnesota.
The line in question is the Manitoba-Minnesota Transmission Project (MMTP), the final leg of the controversial and very expensive Bipole III project.
That project is also the subject of Hydro’s nearly $70 million proposed agreement with the Manitoba Metis Federation (MMF), which the premier has called “persuasion money.”
Citing the controversy surrounding the deal, the hydro board quitting and the MMF threatening legal action, a group calling itself the Southeast Stakeholders Coalition wants the National Energy Board to press pause on the project.
LISTEN: Kevin Toyne, lawyer for the Southeast Stakeholders Coalition, spoke with Geoff Currier on 680 CJOB
Public hearings into the MMTP are scheduled to begin in June.
But in a submission to the board, the coalition asks that these hearings be postponed until three things happen:
- “the newly appointed Board of Directors of Manitoba Hydro confirms that Manitoba Hydro wishes to proceed with the seeking of regulatory approval for the MMTP;
- the full extent of Manitoba Hydro’s improper conduct has been fully investigated; and
- the full extent of Manitoba Hydro’s use of taxpayer funds to improperly obtain regulatory approvals for the MMTP is known.”
It notes that if the hearing goes ahead and the MMTP is cancelled afterward, it would result in “the expenditure of considerable public resources that will be wasted…as a result of this scandal.”
In a letter to Crown Services Minister Cliff Cullen, the coalition describes itself as “a group of landowners that is attempting to correct the deeply flawed and inappropriate proposed route for the MMTP.”
It is asking the government to hold off on making a licencing decision on the project until the controversy is fully investigated.
Comments