Rebecca De Mornay joins film’s killer cast

Manitoba Hydro is pressing ahead with its proposed $3-billion gas-turbine project in Brandon as though approval was a foregone conclusion. Six weeks of Public Utilities Board hearings exposed serious doubts about the need for three turbines, their escalating cost and whether more affordable alternatives have been adequately examined. Yet before the PUB has delivered its recommendations and the government has authorized the investment, Hydro applied for an environmental license on Oct. 8.

Starting the environmental review early may save time but proceeding before the premier and his cabinet have made a decision risks reducing regulatory scrutiny and political approval to mere formalities. Has the government already given Hydro the green light?

Few dispute that Manitoba will need more capacity as demand grows. Daymark Energy Advisors, the PUB’s independent consultant, concluded that Hydro had established a need for additional capacity by 2030. However, Daymark questioned the size of the projected shortfall, Hydro’s load forecasts and its turbine cost assumptions. Hydro itself acknowledged that its planning costs were based on 2024 information, and that surging North American demand for gas turbines has since put significant upward pressure on prices. Then there’s the impact of Trump’s trade war. These are not minor details, but updated costs have not been obtained.

The bigger problem is how Hydro has framed the alternatives. Interim CEO Hal Turner recently argued that wind and battery storage alone cannot reliably carry Manitoba through prolonged extreme cold. Fair enough. However, critics are not proposing wind and batteries alone.

People over cars — always

Re: Researchers: lights at crossing ‘long overdue’ (Oct. 22)

Maggie Macintosh’s article was right on the mark. The biggest problem with pedestrian crossings is the remarkable inconsistency, but there is also the fact that drivers at every traffic light are trained to keep running through amber lights until they turn to red.

I use the pedestrian crossing at Roblin Boulevard and Hunterspoint Road and drive through it every day. Almost every day I see drivers, from a full block away, who will just keep going through the flashing ambers (at the crossing), especially if there is traffic ahead of them doing the same thing.

Dear Miss Lonelyhearts: My wife is no longer my life partner! To my mind, she’s just the mother of my children. She still lives with us and does the major part of the child care.

This summer she discovered I had a girlfriend, but she didn’t want to “break up our family,” as I earn a lot of money. Now she’s treating me like garbage. She’s pleasant to the kids and our cleaning help, but she doesn’t speak much to me, and is disposed to giving me lists for groceries and medication pickups via email, so I pay for almost everything.

The kids seem fine so far, because we haven’t broken up our family and we haven’t changed how we treat each other in front of them. We’re polite and we never fight.

Then just last weekend, my wife finally let me know she’d recently met someone she’s “seeing privately.” It’s a guy we both know from a sports activity the kids enjoy. That just makes me sick — and is upsetting me far more than breaking up.