Pallister creating new energy-saving Crown corporation

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This article was published 08/03/2017 (3145 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Pallister government is expected to introduce legislation Thursday to create a Crown corporation tasked with achieving new targets for reducing electricity and natural gas use in the province.

The new entity — to be known as Efficiency Manitoba — would take over responsibility for energy-savings programs that are now carried out by Manitoba Hydro.

The Progressive Conservatives promised to create such an entity during last year’s election campaign. Its formation was recommended several years ago by the Manitoba Public Utilities Board (PUB).

Sources said Efficiency Manitoba will be directed to create policies and programs to reduce annual electricity growth by 1.5 per cent over the next 15 years. For natural gas, the savings target would be three-quarters of one per cent.

The government served notice Wednesday that Crowns Minister Ron Schuler would introduce Bill 19 (The Efficiency Manitoba Act) Thursday, but refused to provide any details.

A spokeswoman for Premier Brian Pallister said she could not confirm or deny the information obtained by the Free Press.

The new corporation’s main mandate would be to encourage the delivery of energy-efficiency services through a variety of mechanisms, including the private sector and NGOs, a source said. In addition, Hydro could bid to deliver services to some sectors, such as large industrial users.

With the creation of the new corporation, Manitoba Hydro would relinquish delivery of its popular Power Smart energy-savings program, which might be operated under a new name.

Hydro would foot the bill for the new entity, which would have a budget in the range of $60 million to $100 million per year, according to a source.

It’s anticipated that some people working in Hydro’s energy-savings unit would move to the new corporation.

Efficiency Manitoba would be supervised by a nine-person board of directors appointed by the provincial cabinet.

The new corporation would also be subject to third-party independent reviews, including by the PUB.

Every three years, Efficiency Manitoba would be required to present a plan to the PUB outlining the benefits of its programs and their costs.

The PUB would then make a recommendation to cabinet on whether the plan should be approved or modified. Once the plan was approved, funding would flow from Hydro.

In 2013, Philippe Dunsky, a Montreal energy consultant, told a PUB panel that Hydro, once considered the industry leader for its Power Smart program, appeared to be taking a big step backwards in its plans for conservation savings over the next decade.

Dunsky said he had compared Hydro’s 2010 savings through energy-efficiency programs to those offered by utilities in 48 states and four provinces. He also examined Hydro’s planned savings for 2015 against utilities in British Columbia, Minnesota, Massachusetts, Vermont and Nova Scotia.

His analysis showed Hydro’s 2010 performance was in the bottom half of North American utilities and its planned savings for 2015 was 70 to 88 per cent lower than the five comparison providers.

The previous NDP government later hired Dunsky to assist with the establishment of an arms-length body to set and measure targets annually for the conservation of power in Manitoba. It envisioned the new entity as a Hydro subsidiary. However, the former government didn’t follow through on the initiative.

Dunsky is said to have submitted a report to the NDP government in early 2015, but it was never made public. He wasn’t available for comment Wednesday.

By the 2016 election campaign, then-premier Greg Selinger said the NDP was committed to keeping energy savings programs under Hydro’s jurisdiction.

A poll conducted by Probe Research late last year designed in consultation with CUPE Manitoba found that only 12 per cent of Manitobans favoured the creation of a new energy-efficiency agency to take responsibility for energy-savings programs, while 78 per cent said Manitoba Hydro should continue to run Power Smart. Another 10 per cent of respondents said they were unsure. The poll was considered to be accurate within plus or minus 3.1 percentage points 19 times out of 20.

larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca