Hydro killing the lights at dozen dusty rural offices

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This article was published 19/04/2017 (3403 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba Hydro will close a dozen rural offices on May 19.

The Crown corporation said Wednesday that 20 employees will be affected, all of whom will be offered jobs elsewhere. The offices set to close are located in Beausejour, Powerview, Falcon Lake, Fisher Branch, Gimli, Boissevain, Pilot Mound, Glenboro, Winnipegosis, Ste. Rose, Grandview and McCreary.

“The rationale is we’re seeing less and less foot traffic,” Hydro spokesman Bruce Owen said. “Most people are paying their bills online.”

Owen said that field services won’t be affected, he said. Staff who work on the lines and outages are spread over a wide area, and take their trucks home.

“If there is a major outage, field staff can be deployed instantly,” he said.

Falcon Lake has a field worker living in the immediate area with a truck at his home, who will remain in that area, Owen said.

Hydro said it is closing the offices in a continuing effort to improve service delivery and reduce costs.

When Hydro made the decision to consolidate 24 district offices into existing customer service centres in 2013, the remaining 12 were under review.

“It is now time to move forward with the closure of these remaining 12 district offices,” Hydro said in a prepared statement.

Owen said that the entire district consolidation project will save $2 million annually and avoid $50 million worth of future upgrades to the 36 offices.

He said the buildings will be sold in a process offering them to local or district governments first. The process can be a lengthy one, as it includes an environmental assessment and possible cleanup.

Owen said that 24 per cent of customers paid bills at the 36 rural offices in 2007, but that number dropped to six per cent last year.

nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca