Dear Editor,
Manitobans pay $132 less a year on their electricity bills now than they did 20 years ago. These saving are largely due to the $7.5 billion in sales generated from Manitoba Hydro’s Limestone Generating Station, a project the PC’s of the day opposed.
On top of lower rates across the board, rates have gone down even more for rural and northern Manitobans since 2001, when our government brought in equalized rates. Rural and northern Manitobans save about $22 million a year thanks to equalization.
Exporting clean energy keeps energy rates low for Manitobans and subsidizes the cost of building new dams. Our recently announced $100 million sale to Saskatchewan will go a long way to help us continue building the Hydro we need, while still keeping rates low for Manitoba families and businesses.
When Brian Pallister says that we should stop building Hydro, he is calling for the end of low rates for Manitobans. This is not a surprise given that the PC’s have argued for years that Manitobans should pay higher market rates. He’s also saying he doesn’t want the thousands of good jobs that building Hydro will bring.
Our customers to the south and our new customer in Saskatchewan are not looking to purchase electricity generated by coal or gas. They are looking for clean renewable energy to supplement the energy they already produce. And the power sales we have in place with our customers are time sensitive.
The reality is that halting hydro development is not an option. In order to meet the forecasted energy demand in Manitoba over the next 10 years we need to start building today. By developing hydroelectricity we are creating good jobs here at home and keeping the cost of electricity for Manitoba families and businesses among the lowest on the continent.
The PCs plan to stop building hydro is just the first step in their plan to privatize Manitoba Hydro – a plan that will cause rates Manitoba families pay to go through the roof. Manitoba families can’t afford the PC’s risky plan.
The time to build Manitoba Hydro is now.
Stan Struthers
Hydro Minister
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Dear Editor,
Manitoba’s economy is built on trade, and that means our products have to move to reach its markets. Infrastructure is the backbone of our economy. It’s a shame the NDP only just took notice of that important detail.
The NDP government now claims infrastructure is its key priority. If that were true, why would the NDP have reduced infrastructure spending by $92 million between 2011 and 2012? Why would there be 12 projects held up as new investments when they were previously announced? In the recent Throne Speech, the NDP claimed a Highway 6 intersection improvement in Ashern, originally included the 2011-15 Highway Renewal Plan, was a new project. They also claimed in the Throne Speech the permanent outlet from Lake Manitoba to Lake St. Martin was also a new project. That was announced with a large press conference in May.
Then the NDP spent all of last summer going from one announcement to another, using infrastructure investments as an excuse to raise the PST. Those announcements included planting trees, painting murals and building splash pads before realizing that core infrastructure means roads and bridges. One Brandon MLA even used his Twitter account to hail the construction of dikes, originally promised in 2006, as a reason the government needed to raise the PST in 2013.
Really?
If road construction is the NDP’s critical priority, why didn’t they get to work back then?
The NDP can’t be trusted to keep its word. Just look at what they did with the Gas Tax money. When the NDP raised this tax, it pledged to spend two dollars on roads and bridges for every dollar collected through the Gas Tax. In spite of collecting $70.3 million more through the Gas Tax, the NDP spent $35 million less on infrastructure in 2012 ($506 million) than it did in 2009 ($541 million).
What was the NDP’s excuse for that? Projects had to be postponed because of the 2011 flood. Yet, the NDP underspent the infrastructure budget by 27 percent in each of the two years before the 2011 flood. They also underspent the infrastructure budget by 27 percent in the two years after the 2011 flood. These claims don’t hold water.
At the end of the day, ribbon cuttings do not pave highways or build bridges. Investments do, and the evidence from the government’s own figures shows the NDP has not kept its previous infrastructure commitments.
Premier Greg Selinger often says past performance is the best indicator of future behavior. I couldn’t agree more. You can’t believe the NDP will build the roads they promise.
Ralph Eichler
Critic for Infrastructure and Transportation, Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba
