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.
The Doer government and Manitoba Hydro are squeezing every last dime out of the residents of four remote northern Manitoba communities by jacking up their hydro rates by as much as a whopping 400 per cent. Shamattawa, Tadoule Lake, Brochet and Lac Brochet have to rely on diesel-generated electricity because the NDP government would not allow them to join the provincial power grid. "Now that winter is here, the new rates are really hitting home, with the average rate 140 per cent more than last year," said Manitoba Liberal Party leader Dr. Jon Gerrard. "Community facility and school hydro accounts in these communities are expected to skyrocket by more than $730,000 a year. These communities simply cannot afford such a radical increase." Manitoba Hydro is supposed to charge customers connected to the provincial power grid the same rate for electricity service no matter where they live. These four communities, despite the protestations of their elected representatives, were left off the grid and are now paying an exorbitantly high price for power. "This is a simple case of the government not being fair to all of the citizens of Manitoba," said Gerrard. "Representatives from these four communities clearly informed the Public Utility Board hearings into the rate increases this spring that they were already under severe financial strain due to funding limitations and the high costs associated with remoteness. How does the Doer government expect these communities to pay these excessive new hydro rates?"
