‘This is a backwards process’

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This article was published 29/01/2016 (3635 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Environmental advocates are upset the province has allowed Manitoba Hydro to begin work to relocate transmission lines across its right-of-way through the Parker lands — despite an appeal of environmental licences for all transit corridor-related work there.

Cal Dueck, spokesman for the Parker Wetlands Conservation Committee, said he questions the validity of Manitoba Conservation’s appeal process and the land that’s subject to the environmental licence.

“This is a backwards process,” Dueck said. “Once (Hydro and the City of Winnipeg) start, the damage they do can’t be undone.”

The city recently posted signs near Brenda Leipsic Park, stating the off-leash dog park was being closed to the public to allow Manitoba Hydro to relocate transmission lines — part of the work that must be done before construction starts on the southwest transit corridor.

The city expects to start construction work on the controversial $590-million transit corridor and Jubilee Avenue underpass projects in the spring.

Manitoba Hydro said work in the area will begin Feb. 8. A temporary dog park has been established north of Brenda Leipsic Park, the spokesman said, but access there could be restricted during construction.

Several individuals and organizations filed appeals to the environmental licences granted to the city and Hydro for work in the area — located west of Pembina Highway and south of CN Railway’s Rivers line.

After the appeals were launched, both the city and Hydro were instructed by Conservation that, before any work could begin, they were required to submit reports to the department detailing the potential impact on the wetlands and a survey of plant life to determine the presence of endangered or at-risk species.

However, a senior provincial official said despite the licences being under review, the licences remain valid, and the city and Hydro can legally begin work at their own risk.

Tracey Braun, the director of the environmental approvals branch, said the legislation allows proponents to initiate construction work even when licences are being reviewed, but said they would face repercussions if the licences are eventually quashed.

Braun said Hydro had submitted its reports and there appears to be no endangered plant species in its right-of-way. Braun said the city has submitted its impact report, but the plant survey will be done in the spring ahead of construction, adding it’s doubtful anything of significance will be found there.

“We’ve never found (endangered wetland plant species)” in the area, Braun said. “In fact, in both of these situations, before the licence was even issued, we went through a technical advisory committee review within government, and there was nothing raised through that review by our specialists that this would be an area of concern.”

Braun said Conservation considers the potential wetland at risk to be north of Hydro’s right-of-way, on land owned by developer Andrew Marquess, and not where the construction work will take place.

A spokesman for Conservation Minister Thomas Nevakshonoff said the licence appeals remain under consideration, and a decision is expected soon.

Dueck said he is disappointed with Conservation’s approach to the wetlands and the public’s concern over their fate. He said Hydro’s plant survey was done in the summer, when it should have occurred in the spring, adding Conservation’s decision to refuse to acknowledge the area under construction as part of the wetland is an abdication of its environmental responsibility.

“It’s all wetland, even under the hydro lines,” Dueck said.

“Just because Hydro mows that land on a regular basis doesn’t mean the wetland stops there.”

aldo.santin@freepress.mb.ca