Province appoints new Hydro board members

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This article was published 05/07/2018 (3035 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

After months of turmoil and vacancies, four new Manitoba Hydro board members were announced Wednesday, rounding out a half-empty roster that stemmed from a mass resignation in March. IBM Canada vice-president Beth Bell, Brandon-based chartered accountant Harold Reid, former Norway House Cree Nation chief Ron Evans and Hydro’s former chief financial officer Vince Warden (who retired five years ago) were appointed to the board.

They join vice-chairman Michael Moore, Lisa Meeches, Melanie McKague, Wade Linden and Emerson MLA Cliff Graydon on a 10-person team led by Marina James, the first chairwoman in the Hydro board’s history and the CEO of Winnipeg Realtors.

When asked for comment on the new appointees — which she specifically requested in a letter sent to Crown Services Minister Cliff Cullen in April — James deferred to Scott Powell, Hydro’s director of corporate communications.

James had asked Cullen to look for new board members who were skilled in accounting, HR and engineering to help round out the board’s skill set. He delivered on the first two of her three requests.

“Ms. James, the chair, is obviously pleased with the new appointments to the Manitoba Hydro board. She welcomes the government’s new appointments to the board and obviously is looking forward to working with them,” Powell said in a phone interview.

“They bring a real wealth of experience and important additional skills that will assist the corporation and ensure the board is well-equipped to meet their governance responsibilities going forward.”

James expects to meet informally with the new board members over the coming weeks with the first official board meeting happening in August.

Asked why the new appointments took so long to secure, Cullen said there were plenty of applications to sift through and vet after nine of 10 board members quit in March.

“Obviously we had a pretty unique experience we encountered back then, so we needed to get some people in place to provide some stability,” Cullen said, referring to the first six appointees found in March. “And we said to the board at the time, ‘You do your assessment and let us know what kind of resources you would like to see.’ And they did that.”

The former board and its chairman Sandy Riley said they left because the premier refused to meet with them to discuss important financial issues. Graydon was the only board member left from the last batch.

Premier Brian Pallister countered Riley’s claim, saying there was a disagreement over a proposed $67.5-million payment to the Manitoba Metis Federation (MMF) that was meant to ensure the MMF would not oppose a Manitoba-Minnesota transmission line. Pallister called the deal “persuasion money” and described the MMF as a “special interest group.”

The matter is now before the courts as the MMF argues why the deal shouldn’t have been quashed.

Two of the four new board members reached Wednesday, Warden and Reid, said they didn’t care to hear why the former board members left and would not be pursuing discussions with ex-members. Bell and Evans could not immediately be reached for comment.

Reid said while he wouldn’t try talking to former board members, he wouldn’t be opposed to launching an investigation into why the old board disintegrated.

“I think if the whole new board wanted to investigate that, I’m more than willing to be a part of it. I’m just not sure whether it’s important anymore,” he said, noting he feels confident getting the information from Hydro staff and from Graydon.

Reid said he was approached in May to join the Hydro board and he did hesitate “a little bit” before accepting the position, after reading media reports about what happened with the former board.

“I really don’t want to comment on what they did or didn’t do because I’m really not up to speed on any of that yet. I have my own opinions on that situation, but again, I’d really like to hold that until I really know what happened,” he said. “And really it’s in the past now and so we need to move forward and get Hydro on a really good financial footing and try to sell our power to whoever wants to buy it and make this a strong entity for Manitoba.”

Warden worked at the Crown corporation for 40 years and was less coy about what he thought of the last board’s exit strategy.

“I think I had some understanding of their position. I didn’t agree with it — absolutely didn’t agree with it — but nonetheless, I have no particular need or desire to meet with the former board,” Warden said.

The retired CFO said he hopes to help improve Hydro’s financial situation. According to its last fiscal report from March 2017, the Crown corporation is $16.4 billion in debt. Powell confirmed that amount has risen and said the next financial forecast will be publicized in August.

“They were making a lot of statements about the dire financial… position of Manitoba (Hydro), which I don’t agree with at all. I think Manitoba Hydro is in a relatively good financial position. We have some challenges, for sure, but we can certainly meet those without the very high rate increases that were previously put forward to the Public Utilities Board (PUB),” Warden said.

Hydro requested a 7.9 per cent rate hike from the PUB in May to speed up its debt-reduction plan. The PUB agreed to a 3.6 per cent raise instead.

Cullen said he doesn’t expect to appoint any more Hydro board members for the foreseeable future (the current members’ terms expire between 2019 and 2022), although engineering expertise is still lacking on the board. The minister said there are “probably close to 600 engineers on staff right now so I think Manitoba Hydro itself has the engineering capacity.”

Cullen also noted the province continues to contemplate a full investigative review of Hydro’s operations, beyond just what happened with the former board. Asked when that review will be launched, he said it will be in the very short term, so “stay tuned.”

jessica.botelho@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @_jessbu