Métis federation brings Hydro dispute to energy hearings

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This article was published 18/06/2018 (3052 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

National Energy Board hearings in Winnipeg this week regarding licensing of a proposed transmission line to Minnesota will be the latest venue for the Manitoba Metis Federation to air its dispute with the Pallister government and Manitoba Hydro.

Lawyers for the MMF are set to make a case today the federal tribunal should receive, as part of its proceedings, details of the contentious deal the federation made with Hydro on a $67.5-million, 50-year land entitlement tied to the MMF’s approval of the Manitoba-Minnesota Transmission Project.

News the province cancelled the agreement came out March 21, after nine of 10 Manitoba Hydro board members resigned. Premier Brian Pallister has referred to the deal as “hush money,” so the MMF would agree to the planned $453-million transmission line to Minnesota.

Jason Madden, a lawyer for the MMF, is scheduled to ask the NEB to put the deal, included in an MMF response to the panel’s request for information, on the record.

“Manitoba Hydro has made the agreement, now they say, ‘Don’t look behind the curtain,’” Madden said Monday. “They want to have the agreement struck from the record.”

Prior to the MMF’s inclusion of the deal in recent correspondence to the NEB, it had not been part of the voluminous submission on the project to the federal tribunal.

“The MMF’s support for the project is tied to this agreement being implemented,” Madden said during a recess of the NEB hearings. “This is a federal approval. (The NEB) needs to make a condition for the licence that Manitoba Hydro will honour the agreements made with Indigenous people.”

The MMF and the province are scheduled to face off in court next week, to argue whether the deal is legally binding.

“We say the agreement is still in place, and that it is binding on Manitoba Hydro,” Madden said. “That is part of our litigation which we filed to the court to overturn the Manitoba government’s decision.”

In the meantime, Madden said it is important the NEB be aware of what has transpired.

He said he intends to argue the NEB’s decision “will be faulty and subject to being quashed” if it doesn’t acknowledge the MMF agreement and, if the court ultimately determines it is legally binding, to make honouring it one of the conditions of the licence for the transmission line project.

Scott Powell, a spokesman for Manitoba Hydro, said: “We just don’t feel the alleged agreement is relevant to the application before the NEB.”

Powell referred to the nixed deal as a “term sheet.”

“Because the action is before the courts, we really are not going to comment more than that,” he said.

“We had discussed a term sheet, which is essentially what we had, which is not an agreement.”

Whether or not the dispute disrupts final approval for the $453-million, 213-kilometre transmission line remains to be seen.

The line is to be built to service a 15-year deal for Manitoba Hydro to sell power to Minnesota Power, starting in 2020. The new power line is to run to the U.S. border crossing near Piney from the Dorsey Converter Station near Rosser.

Powell said in addition to being needed to service that export sale, the new transmission line is also needed to enhance the reliability of the system, including more than doubling the province’s capability to import power in case of transmission emergency or drought.

“There is an important reliability component to this, as well as energy security,” he said.

The hearings are scheduled to continue all week. The NEB has until March 20 to make its recommendation to federal cabinet.

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca