The Black Rod

Manitoba Hydro is on its deathbed. Oh, you won't find anyone official to say it. Yet . Like relatives trying to appear cheery and optimistic around a loved one that's been diagnosed with terminal cancer, the people in power are in the first stage of grief -- denial. The prognosis for Hydro was delivered three weeks ago at hearings before the Public Utilities Board where the utility was seeking punishingly higher rates for customers in Manitoba. It took us this long to read through the hundred-plus pages of transcript, to decipher the coded language of the witnesses, to interpret what they were getting at, and, finally, to understand the terrible conclusion.  We couldn't believe it, just as, we're sure, you can't--- so we did it all again, to get a second opinion, so to speak.  Hydro conceded to the PUB that it undertook a massive expansion program--- involving three (it was once four) new dams and two new major powerlines (one in the United States)---whi...

It's TIME TO PANIC! Manitoba Hydro didn't ask for a rate increase last month--- they begged, they pleaded, and ... they threatened dire consequences if they didn't get their way. And that was just for the best-case scenario. Which is disastrous. The reason for their desperation is in the supporting documents that were filed with their application which can be summed up in four words: Manitoba Hydro Horror Show. Here's how the crisis shapes up: * Manitoba Hydro won't be able to raise enough money to make its interest payments in eight of the next 13 years. * Manitoba Hydro won't earn enough money to cover the cost of replacing aging infrastructure in nine of the next ten years , never mind paying the billions required for new dams and transmission lines. * If the Province has to backstop Hydro, the utility will lose its credit rating and borrowing costs will go way up. * If Hydro loses its credit rating, it will tak...

That chill down our collective spines had nothing to do with the coming winter. We were reading the 160-page, Manitoba Hydro-commissioned Hydropower Sustainability Assessment Protocol, by a group you've never heard of, fronted by a Swedish "hydro-power expert", discussing Hydro's planned multi-billion-dollar Keeyask generating station.  It's really scary. We first heard of this report from a story in the Winnipeg Free Press: Expert applauds dam project Team spent months assessing Keeyask By: Bruce Owen   Last Modified: 10/26/2013 10:14 AM | Updates A Swedish hydro-power expert has given a thumbs-up to Manitoba Hydro's next big dam in northern Manitoba. Bernt Rydgren's report is far from the final say on the estimated $6.2-billion Keeyask generating station project, but Hydro maintains it goes a long way toward demonstrating the Crown utility has set a new globally recognized standard in how large hydroelectric projects a...

Two things sent chills down our backs this week. First, was the magnificent performance of Winnipeg's own Samantha Hill at the Tony Awards, a show which was watched by 7.2 million people.  She had the honour of singing the immortal showstopper 'Music of the Night' during a tribute to Andrew Lloyd Webber's 'The Phantom of the Opera', which, this January  became the longest-running show in Broadway history. This year Hill reached the top of the theatre mountain, taking the female lead of Christine Daee in the Broadway production, opposite Peter Joback as the Phantom. If you missed it, you can catch their performance at the Tony's here:   http://broadwayworld.com/article/VIDEO-PHANTOM-OF-THE-OPERA-Cast-Performs-at-Tony-Awards-20130610 At the other end of the scale, we read the full 30-page heart-stopping commentary by Graham Lane, former chairman of the Public Utilities Board, on Doer's Folly , the runaway tr...

When it comes to Manitoba Hydro, the Public Utilities Board has set off more distress signals than the Titanic, with less response. Hydro has been in the news all week after the PUB granted the utility a two percent rate hike effective April 1st. Hydro says it needs the money to forestall large losses as a result of the warm winter just past. The mainstream media has parroted this excuse. Nobody has pointed out the strange coincidence that a rate hike denied Hydro just in January by the PUB was reinstated, with an extra 1 percent top up, exactly one day after the chairman of the oversight body retired and a new chairman, appointed by the NDP government, took his place . If this means what it appears to mean , it's bad news all around for Manitoba ratepayers since the MSM seems unwilling or unable to report the facts about Hydro. The Winnipeg Free Press is reporting on its front page today that Mayor Sam Katz bought season tickets to the W...