The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Manitoba Hydro rates are going up five per cent next month and are expected to increase by nearly another five per cent next year. The Public Utilities Board this week approved a five per cent increase effective Aug. 1 and conditionally approved increases of 2.25 per cent on both April 1 and Oct. 1, 2005. All three increases would add nearly $50 to the average Manitoba homeowner's annual power bills. This is the first round of residential electricity rate hikes since 1997, when they went up 1.3 per cent. The boost will generate $88 million a year for Hydro as the Crown corporation tries to rebound from last year's record drought that resulted in a loss of almost $360 million. Hydro had originally sought a three per cent increase effective April 1, 2004, and another 2.5 per cent one year later. But the Public Utilities Board granted a larger boost, saying the proposed increases were insufficient to address the aftermath of last year's drought. Manitoba Energy Minister Tim Sale told the Winnipeg Free Press that the rates remain the lowest in North America. Tory Hydro critic Bonnie Mitchelson blamed the increases not on the drought but on the $203 million in dividends Hydro had to pay to the province in 2002. "To have the NDP government say the dividend they forced Manitoba Hydro to hand over wouldn't have an impact is crazy," she told the Winnipeg Sun.
