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Manitoba NDP Reviving "Mega-Project" Strategy

Over the course of its first term, the Doer government announced plans to proceed with up to four hydroelectric mega-projects, all aimed at producing hydroelectric energy for export. The main export markets are Ontario and the northern American states. According to the NDP, these mega-projects will create jobs, generate investment in the province and pave the way for Manitoba to enter into the ranks of the "have provinces". A provincial pamphlet touting the benefits of investing in Manitoba notes that "Manitoba Hydro has not increased industrial electricity rates for 10 years."

The latest mega-project announcement came at the end of April, when the governments of Ontario and Manitoba issued a joint news release promising to investigate the creation of an east-west power grid and the development of the Conawapa hydroelectric project.

The Conawapa project was originally proposed by the NDP government of Howard Pawley in the late 1980s and then enthusiastically pursued by the Filmon Tories for a few years, until it was finally shelved in 1992 due to the recession and decreased demand from Ontario.

The Conawapa proposal has not changed significantly over the last 15 years; it is still an attempt by various capitalists to profit handsomely by looting the public treasury. First, the mega-project is constructed using massive, long-term loans from financial institutions, guaranteeing those institutions interest payments for many decades to come. Secondly, the technology and materials needed to create it are purchased from an assortment of capitalists. And thirdly, once completed, Conawapa's aim is to provide the capitalists with subsidized hydroelectric power at a time when energy prices across North America are soaring.

The current Conawapa proposal comes with a $6 billion price tag and involves the construction of a dam and generating plant on the Nelson River and the creation of a high-voltage transmission line east to Ontario. Manitoba Hydro projects that this project will generate 1,250 megawatts, enough to power 1.25 million average homes, and would be the biggest of the province's 14 crown-run hydroelectric plants.

Manitoba Hydro and Ontario's Hydro One are currently undertaking a feasibility study of the project. The final report of the study is expected by the end of 2003, and if favourable, the project will begin moving forward quickly. According to provincial energy minister Tim Sale, this mega-project will be of national importance. "Historically, Canada was built and tied together by the national railroad," Sale said. "The establishment of an East-West grid would strengthen Canada's transmission infrastructure, help to meet the energy requirements of our country, and promote energy security and self-sufficiency."

The same day the Conawapa study was announced, the Manitoba government and Manitoba Hydro announced that they had signed agreements-in-principle with the Cross Lake and Norway House First Nations. The agreements provide for a total of $17 million in funding in compensation for what the Doer government describes as "impacts related to past hydroelectric developments."

In the 1970s, the federal and provincial governments funded Manitoba Hydro's massive re-engineering of the Churchill and Nelson rivers. Under that project, which was also touted as a panacea for the provincial economy, 85 percent of the natural river flow of the Churchill River was diverted into the Nelson River. The additional water pumped into the Nelson River was used to power a series of dams built along the Nelson in the late 1960s. The environmental impact was devastating.

"Huge tracts of land were flooded and thousands of acres of forests died, resulting in debris scattered for hundreds of miles along the shorelines and floating throughout the waterways. Fluctuating levels of the reservoirs and rivers have resulted in hundreds of miles of eroded shore banks, sedimentation problems, and a sever degradation of water quality. Natural habitat has been severely altered, reducing waterfowl, wildlife and fish populations." ("Ecological Effects Can't Be Ignored", by Steve Hoffman)

The impact of this devastation on the Aboriginal peoples of the north was severe and has been well documented by both government and non-government sources.

One of the most recent and most damning reports was prepared by Manitoba's Interchurch Council, which organized and funded its own inquiry into northern Hydro Development in 2001. Its report notes: "It is a tragic irony that the same region that supplies Manitoba with billions of dollars of wealth is also home to Aboriginal peoples caught in a quagmire of poverty and social problems." The unemployment rate in some communities is over 80 percent, with suicide rates over ten times the national average. Alcoholism is also rampant. The environmental destruction, the report notes, destroyed the land-base which had sustained Aboriginal communities for generations, "cutting to the very heart of their existence."

While environmental impact studies are expected for Conawapa and other projects, government officials are already speaking as if the project is a fait accompli, providing timelines for the mass export of Manitoba's hydroelectric power.