April 4 2019 – Winnipeg Sun plus commentary

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Hydro’s Minnesota transmission line granted Manitoba approval
The transmission line Manitoba wants to build to carry power to Minnesota has cleared another hurdle by gaining environmental licence approval, Sustainable Development Minister Rochelle Squires announced Thursday.

https://winnipegsun.com/news/news-news/hydros-minnesota-transmission-line-granted-manitoba-approval

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There is more to this than the media is willing to dig into.

Is this one of the poorly negotiated contracts that MB Hydro made while under the Selinger led NDP majority government? One that was tied to the rate of natural gas?

When these dropped sharply with oil price drops due to large amounts of fracking in the US and Canada MB Hydro and rate payers in MB stuck making up the difference and more after tens of billions of dollars being spent on new dams and aging infrastructure.

MB Hydro owes over $12 Billion and that expected to rise to over $25 Billion in the next few years. The interest payments alone are staggering and all of this together is why the they asking for approval if several rate hikes that are many times higher than inflation.

The Pallister led PC majority government promised to reign this in but have only spent millions on more studies after the previous ones ignored.

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Related

Manitoba Hydro is on its deathbed. There, we said it – The Black Rod

Thursday, August 10, 2017